AN 

AMERICAN  HISTORY 


BY 


DAVID  SAVILLE  MUZZEY,  PH.D. 

BARNARD  COLLEGE,  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY,  NEW  YORK 


rerum  co^noscere  causas 


GINN  AND  COMPANY 

BOSTON  •  NEW  YORK  •  CHICAGO  •  LONDON 


COPYRIGHT,  1911,  BY  DAVID   SAVILLE  MUZZEY 

ENTERED  AT  STATIONERS'  HALL 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

A  8l2. 2 


GIFT 


GINN  AND  COMPANY-  PRO 
PRIETORS  •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


EDITORIAL  PREFACE 

The  present  volume  represents  the  newer  tendencies  in  his 
torical  writing.  Its  aim  is  not  to  tell  over  once  more  the  old 
story  in  the  old  way,  but  to  give  the  emphasis  to  those  factors 
in  our  national  development  which  appeal  to  us  as  most  vital 
from  the  standpoint  of  to-day.  However  various  may  be  the  ad 
vantages  of  historical  study,  one  of  them,  and  perhaps  the  most 
unmistakable,  is  to  explain  prevailing  conditions  and  institutions 
by  showing  how  they  have  come  about.  This  is  our  best  way 
of  understanding  the  present  and  of  placing  ourselves  in  a  posi 
tion  to  participate  intelligently  in  the  solution  of  the  great 
problems  of  social  and  political  betterment  which  it  is  the  duty 
of  all  of  us  to  face.  Dr.  Muzzey  has  not,  therefore,  tabulated 
a  series  of  historical  occurrences  under  successive  presidential 
administrations,  but  has  carefully  selected  the  great  phases  in 
the  development  of  our  country  and  treated  them  in  a  coherent 
fashion.  He  has  exhibited  great  skill  i»  so  ordering  them  that 
they  form  a  continuous  narrative  which  will  secure  and  retain 
the  interest  of  the  student.  There  is  no  question  at  any  point 
of  the  importance  of  the  topics  selected  and  their  relation  to 
our  whole  complex  development.  All  minor,  uncorrelated  mat 
ters,  such  as  the  circumstances  attending  each  colonial  planta 
tion,  the  tactics  and  casualties  of  military  campaigns,  the  careers 
of  men  of  slight  influence  in  high  office,  are  boldly  omitted  on 
the  ground  that  they  make  no  permanent  impression  on  the 
student's  mind  and  serve  only  to  confuse  and  blur  the 
larger  issues. 

'  Some  special  features  of  the  book  are  its  full  discussion  of 
the  federal  power  in  connection  with  the  Constitution,  its  em 
phasis  on  the  westward-moving  frontier  as  the  most  constant 


iv  Editorial  Preface 

and  potent  force  in  our  history,  and  its  recognition  of  the  influ 
ence  of  economic  factors  on  our  sectional  rivalries  and  political 
theories.  It  will  be  noted  that  from  one  fourth  to  one  fifth  of 
the  volume  deals  with  the  history  of  our  country  since  the  Civil 
War  and  Reconstruction.  Hitherto  there  has  been  a  reluctance 
on  the  part  of  those  who  have  prepared  textbooks  on  our  his 
tory  to  undertake  the  responsibility  of  treating  those  recent 
phases  of  our  social,  political,  and  industrial  history  which  are 
really  of  chief  concern  to  us.  Dr.  Muzzey  has  'undertaken  the 
arduous  task  of  giving  the  great  problems  and  preoccupations 
of  to-day  their  indispensable  historic  setting.  This  I  deem  the 
very  special  merit  of  his  work,  and  am  confident  that  it  will 
meet  with  eager  approbation  from  many  who  have  long  been 
dissatisfied  with  the  conventional  textbook,  which  leaves  a  great 
gap  between  the  past  and  the  present. 

JAMES  HARVEY  ROBINSON 
COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


CONTENTS 


PART  I 
THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  ENGLISH 

CHAPTER 

I.  THE  NEW  WORLD 

THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA 3 

A  CENTURY  OF  EXPLORATION      ....*...     13 

II.  THE  ENGLISH  COLONIES 

THE  OLD  DOMINION 27 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  SETTLEMENTS 35 

THE  PROPRIETARY  COLONIES 52 

THE  COLONIES  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  .     .  67 

III.  THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  FRANCE  FOR  NORTH  AMERICA 

THE  RISE  OF  NEW  FRANCE     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     81 

THE  FALL  OF  NEW  FRANCE 92 


PART  II 

SEPARATION   OF  THE  COLONIES   FROM  ENGLAND 

IV.  BRITISH  RULE  IN  AMERICA 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  PARLIAMENT  IN  THE  COLONIES  107 

TAXATION  WITHOUT  REPRESENTATION 112 

THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 120 

V.  THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  NATION 

THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE      .     .     .     .127 

THE  REVOLUTIONARY  WAR .  .     .136 

PEACE 150 


vi  Contents 

PART   III 
THE  NEW  REPUBLIC 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VI.  THE  CONSTITUTION 

THE  CRITICAL  PERIOD 159 

"A  MORE  PERFECT  UNION" 166 

THE  FEDERAL  POWER 173 

VII.  FEDERALISTS  AND  REPUBLICANS 

LAUNCHING  THE  GOVERNMENT  .          184 

THE  REIGN  OF  FEDERALISM 193 

THE  JEFFERSONIAN  POLICIES 205 

THE  WAR  OF  1812 213 


PART  IV 

NATIONAL  VERSUS  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS 

VIII.  THE  GROWTH  OF  A  NATIONAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

"  THE  ERA  OF  GOOD  FEELING  " 229 

THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE  .     .     .    * 236 

IX.  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS 

FACING  WESTWARD 245 

THE  FAVORITE  SONS 251 

AN  ERA  OF  HARD  FEELINGS     ....     .     .     .  259 

THE  "  TARIFF  OF  ABOMINATIONS  " 267 

X.  "  THE  REIGN  OF  ANDREW  JACKSON  " 

NULLIFICATION 277 

THE  WAR  ON  THE  BANK 282 

A  NEW  PARTY 289 


Contents  vii 


PART  V 
SLAVERY  AND  THE  WEST 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XI.  THE  GATHERING  CLOUD 

SLAVERY  IN  THE  COLONIES 3°3 

THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE 308 

THE  ABOLITIONISTS 3l6 

XII.  TEXAS 

WESTWARD  EXPANSION 328 

THE    "  REOCCUPATION  "    OF    OREGON    AND    THE 

"  REANNEXATION  "  OF  TEXAS 336 

THE  MEXICAN  WAR 342 

XIII.  THE  COMPROMISE  OF  1850 

THE  NEW  TERRITORY 351 

THE  OMNIBUS  BILL 358 

A  FOUR  YEARS'  TRUCE 364 


PART  VI 

THE  CRISIS  OF  DISUNION 

XIV.  APPROACHING  THE  CRISIS 

THE  REPEAL  OF  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE  AND 
THE  FORMATION  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  379 

"BLEEDING  KANSAS" 388 

"A  HOUSE  DIVIDED  AGAINST  ITSELF"  ....  395 

XV.  SECESSION 

THE  ELECTION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  ....  405 

THE  SOUTHERN  CONFEDERACY 414 

THE  FALL  OF  FORT  SUMTER 421 


viii  Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVI.  THE  CIVIL  WAR 

THE  OPPOSING  FORCES 430 

FROM  BULL  RUN  TO  GETTYSBURG       ....  436 

THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  NORTH 452 

EMANCIPATION 469 

XVII.  THE  ERA  OF  RECONSTRUCTION 

How  THE  NORTH  USED  ITS  VICTORY  ....  477 
THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  NATION 489 


PART  VII 

THE  POLITICAL  AND  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF 
THE  REPUBLIC  SINCE  THE   CIVIL  WAR 

XVIII.  TWENTY  YEARS  OF  REPUBLICAN  SUPREMACY 

THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AGE 505 

THE  REPUBLICAN  MACHINE 510 

THE  PARTY  REVOLUTION  OF  1884 520 

XIX.  THE  CLEVELAND  DEMOCRACY 

A  PEOPLE'S  PRESIDENT 533 

A  BILLION-DOLLAR  COUNTRY 544 

PROBLEMS  OF  CLEVELAND'S  SECOND  TERM  .     .557 

XX.  ENTERING  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

THE  SPANISH  WAR  AND  THE  PHILIPPINES  .     .574 

THE  ROOSEVELT  POLICIES 591 

PRESENT-DAY  PROBLEMS 609 

APPENDIX  I  ...."... 627 

APPENDIX   II 632 

INDEX  ,     .     .  649 


LIST  OF  FULL-PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS 


George  Washington Frontispiece 

Types  of  Indian  Dwellings,  —  the  Pueblo,  the  Tepee,  and  the 

Long  House    ......          24 

Portrait  of  John  Smith 30 

Pilgrim  Monument  at  Provincetown,  Mass 36 

Facsimile  of  Bradford  MS.  "History  of  Plimoth  Plantation"  38 

La  Salle  taking  Possession  of  Louisiana ,,86 

Franklin  at  the  Court  of  France,  1778 138 

Group  of  Famous  Revolutionary  Buildings 154 

The  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.     .     .180 

Alexander  Hamilton 192 

Interview  between  Washington  and  Citizen  Genet 196 

Thomas  Jefferson 206 

John  C.  Calhoun 255 

Henry  Clay 256 

Andrew  Jackson 278 

Webster's  Reply  to  Hayne 280 

Sherman's  Army  destroying  the  Railroads  in  Georgia      .     .     .  462 
Lee's  Letter  to  Grant  respecting  the  Surrender  of  the  Confed 
erate  Army  of  Northern  Virginia 465 

Abraham  Lincoln 468 

White  House,  after  the  Remodeling  of  1902 506 

Grover  Cleveland 534 

President  Taft     ,                                                                                 .  608 


ix 


LIST  OF  FULL-PAGE  AND  DOUBLE- 
PAGE  MAPS 

PAGE 

Voyages  of  Discovery  in  the  Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth  Centuries  10 
Early  Maps  of  America  (Lenox,  Finaeus,  Miinster,  Mercator)  18,  19 

Proprietary  Grants  made  by  the  Stuart  Kings 54 

French  Explorations  on  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi  .  88 

The  French  and  Indian  Wars 99 

An  Old  View  of  the  Siege  of  Quebec 100 

England's  Acquisitions  in  America  in  the  French  Wars  of 

1689-1763 102 

The  United  States  in  1 783 152 

The  Louisiana  Purchase  Territory,  with  States  subsequently 

made  from  it 210 

Routes  to  the  West,  1815-1825 248 

The  Acquisition  of  the  Far  West,  1845-1850 350 

Canals  and  Railroads  operated  in  1850 368 

The  Presidential  Election  of  1860 412 

The  Chief  Campaigns  of  the  Civil  War 438 

Territorial  Growth  of  the  United  States 548 

The  Greater  United  States  and  the  Panama  Canal  Routes  .  .  602 
Progress  of  the  Referendum  and  the  Initiative 612 


AMERICAN  HISTORY 

PART  I.  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF 
THE  ENGLISH 


PART   I.    THE   ESTABLISHMENT 
OF  THE    ENGLISH 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  NEW  WORLD 

THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA 

HE  discovery  of  America  was  an  accident.  1.  Trade 
The  brave  sailors  of  the  fifteenth  century  Europ^and 

who  turned  the  prows  of  their  tiny  vessels  Jh*J*L5f« 

in  the  Middle 

into  the  strange  waters  of  the  Atlantic  Ages 
were  seeking  a  new  way  to  "  the  Indies," 
— a  term  vaguely  used  to  denote  not  In 
dia  alone  but  also  China,  Japan,  and  all 
the  Far  Eastern  countries  of  Asia.  From 
these  lands  western  Europe  had  for  cen 
turies  been  getting  many  of  its  luxuries 
and  comforts.  Ever-lengthening  traders'  caravans  brought  Orien 
tal  rugs,  flowered  silks,  gems,  spices,  porcelains,  damasks,  dyes, 
drugs,  perfumes,  and  precious  woods  across  the  plains  and  pla 
teaus  of  middle  Asia  to  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Black  Sea, 
or  crept  along  the  hot  borders  of  the  Arabian  peninsula  to  the 
headwaters  of  the  Red  Sea.  At  the  ports  of  the  Black  Sea  and 
the  Mediterranean  the  fleets  of  Venice  and  Genoa  were  waiting 
to  carry  the  Indian  merchandise  to  the  distributing  centers  of 
southern  Europe,  whence  it  was  conveyed  over  the  Alpine  passes 
or  along  the  Rhone  valley  to  the  busy,  prosperous  towns  of 
France,  Germany,  England,  and  the  Netherlands. 

3 


4  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

2.  The  Turks       But  in  the  fourteenth  century  the  Osmanli  Turks  —  an  aggres- 
trade  routes     s^ve'  bigoted  Mohammedan  race  —  began  to  block  the  path  of  the 
(1300-1450)        Eastern  traders.    The  Turks  were  determined  not  only  to  drive 

the  Christians  out  of  Asia,  but  to  cross  over  into  Europe  them 
selves.  In  1453  they  captured  the  great  city  of  Constantinople, 
the  capital  of  the  Byzantine,  or  eastern  Roman,  Empire.  In  the 
following  decade  they  dislodged  the  "  Franks  "  (as  they  called 
all  Europeans)  from  Syria,  Asia  Minor,,  and  the  islands  of  the 
^Egean  Sea.  The  Venetian  and  Genoese  trade  was  ruined  by 
these  wars,  which  practically  closed  the  eastern  end  of  the  Medi 
terranean  to  European  vessels,  and  made  it  of  the  utmost  im 
portance  to  discover  new  routes  to  the  rich  treasure  lands  of 
the  Indies. 

3.  The  Under  the  stimulus  of  this  practical  need  the  study  of  geog- 

raphy  and  the  science  of  navigation  flourished  in  the  fifteenth 


science  in  the  century.    Hundreds  of  portolani,  or  sailing  charts,  were  drawn 

century  by  the  Italian  and  Portuguese  mariners.   Six  new  editions  of  the 

"Geography"  of  Ptolemy  were  published  between  1472  and 

I492.1    The  compass  and  the  astrolabe  (for  measuring  latitude) 

were  perfected.    Ships  were  designed  to  sail  close  to  the  wind 

and  to  stand  the  buffeting  of  the  high  ocean  waves.    Before  the 

end  of  the  fifteenth  century  Portuguese  sailors  had  pushed  nearly 

a  thousand  miles  westward  into  the  uncharted  Atlantic,  and  were 

creeping  mile  by  mile  down  the  western  coast  of  Africa.    In 

1486  Bartholomew  Dias  rounded  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and 

had  not  his  crew  refused  to  go  farther  from  home,  he  might 

have  stood  out  across  the  Indian  Ocean  and  reached  the  Spice 

Islands  of  the  East  and  all  the  cities  of  the  Chinese  Empire. 

4.  christo-          While  Dias  was  making  his  way  back  to  Portugal  an  Italian 

seeks  aia^or  S  mariner  from  Genoa,  named  Cristoforo  Colombo,  better  known 

a  westward     ^y  ^s  Latinized  name  of  Columbus,  who  had  become  convinced 

voyage  to  the      ' 

indies  by  his  geographical  studies  that  he  could  reach  the  Indies  by 

1  Claudius  Ptolomseus,  a  Greek  astronomer,  wrote  a  "  Geography  "  about  the 
year  150  A.D..  which  remained  the  standard  work  on  the  shape  and  size  of 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  (the  known  world  of  the  Middle  Ages)  until  after  the 
great  voyages  of  the  fifteenth  century. 


The  New  World  5 

sailing  westward  across  the  Atlantic,  was  seeking  aid  for  his 
project  at  the  courts  of  Europe.  He  first  applied  to  the  king 
of  Portugal,  in  whose  service  he  had  already  made  several  voy 
ages  down  the  African  coast.  On  being  repulsed  he  transferred 
his  request  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  the  sovereigns  of  Spain, 
and  at  the  same  time  sent  his  brother  Bartholomew,  who  had 
been  with  Dias  on  his  famous  voyage,  to  solicit  the  support  of 
King  Henry  VII  of  England. 

Columbus  had  despaired  of  enlisting  the  interest  of  the  Span-  5.  Ferdinand 
ish  sovereigns,  and  was  about  to  start  for  Paris,  when  the  influ-  of  Spain  fur_ 
ence  of  some  important  persons  at  the  Spanish  court  procured  j,jn^shi^  ril 
him  a  favorable  audience.    He  met  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in  1492 
their  gorgeous  camp  before  Granada,  from  which  city  they  had 
just  driven  out  the  last  of  the  Moorish  rulers  in  Spain.    In  the 
auspicious  moment  of  victory  the  sovereigns  were  moved  to 
grant  Columbus  financial  aid  for  his  project,  to  confer  upon  him 
a  title  of  nobility,  and  to  create  him  admiral  of  all  the  lands  and 
islands  which  he  might  find  on  his  voyage.    This  was  in  April, 
1492.    By  the  following  August,  Columbus  was  ready  to  start 
from  Palos,  with  three  small  ships  and  about  a  hundred  sailors, 
on  what  proved  to  be  the  most  momentous  voyage  in  history. 

Columbus  was  a  student  as  well  as  a  man  of  affairs.  His  son  6.  coiumbus's 
Ferdinand  tells  us  in  his  "  Biography  "  that  his  father  was  influ- 
enced  by  the  old  Arabian  and  Greek  astronomers.  There  are 
geographical  works  in  existence  with  notes  in  Coiumbus's  hand 
writing  in  the  margin.  He  shared  with  the  best  scholars  of  his 
day  the  long-established  belief  in  the  sphericity  of  the  earth.1 
As  a  guide  for  his  voyage  he  had  a  chart  made  for  the  king  of 
Portugal  in  1474,  by  the  Florentine  astronomer  Toscanelli,  to 

1  The  popular  idea  that  Columbus  "  discovered  that  the  earth  is  round  "  is 
entirely  false.  More  than  eighteen  hundred  years  before  Coiumbus's  day  the 
Greek  philosopher  Aristotle  demonstrated  the  sphericity  of  the  earth  from  the 
'  altitude  of  the  stars  observed  from  various  places.  Roger  Bacon,  a  Franciscan 
friar,  in  1267  even  collected  passages  from  the  writers  of  classical  antiquity  to 
prove  that  the  ocean  separating  Spain  from  the  eastern  shore  of  Asia  was  not 
very  wide.  The  merit  of  Columbus  was  that  he  proved  the  truth  of  these  theories 
by  courageous  action. 


7.  Tosca- 
nelli's  map 
of  1474 


6  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

demonstrate  that  the  Indies  could  be  reached  by  sailing  west 
ward.  Toscanelli  had  calculated  the  size  of  the  earth  almost 
exactly,  but,  misled  by  the  description  of  travelers  to  the  Far 
East,  he  had  made  the  continent  of  Asia  extend  eastward  almost 
all  the  way  across  the  Pacific  Ocean,  so  that  Cipango  (or  Japan) 
on  his  map  occupied  the  actual  position  of  Mexico.  Columbus 
therefore,  although  not  deceived  as  to  the  length  of  voyage 


8.  Columbus 
crosses  the 
Atlantic, 
September- 
October,  1492 


The  Toscanelli  Map  of  1474 
The  outline  of  the  Western  Continent  is  in  red,  showing  its  actual  position 

necessary  to  reach  land,  was  deceived  to  the  day  of  his  death 
as  to  the  land  he  reached  at  the  end  of  his  voyage. 

The  little. trio  of  vessels,  favored  by  clear  skies  and  a  steady 
east  wind,  made  the  passage  from  the  Canary  Islands  to  the 
Bahamas  in  five  weeks.  No  storms  racked  the  ships,  but  still 
it  was  a  fearsome  voyage  over  the  quiet  seas.  To  the  trembling 
crews  each  mile  westward  was  a  further  venture  into  the  great 
mysterious  "  sea  of  darkness,"  where  horrible  monsters  might 
be  waiting  to  engulf  them,  where  the  fabled  mountain  of  load 
stone  might  draw  the  nails  from  their  ships,  or  the  dreaded 


The  New  World 


boring  worm  puncture  their  wooden  keels.  The  auspicious  and 
unvarying  east  wind  itself  was  a  menace.  How  could  they  ever 
get  home  again  in  the  face  of  it  ?  And  if  the  world  was  round, 
as  their  captain  said,  were  they  not  daily  sliding  down  its  slope, 
which  they  could  never  remount?  Dark  faces  and  ominous 
whisperings  warned  Columbus  of  his  danger.  Early  in  October 
there  were  overt  signs  of  mutiny,  but  the  great  pilot  quelled  the 
discontent,  saying  that  complain  as  they  might,  he  must  reach 
the  Indies,  and  would  sail 
on  until  with  God's  help  he 
found  them.  His  courage 
was  rewarded,  for  the  very 
next  night  he  espied  a  light 
ahead,  and  when  day  dawned 
(October  12,  1492)  the  sandy 


beach  of  an  island  lay  spread 
before  the  eyes  of  his  wearied 
crew.  Surrounded  by  the 
naked  awe-stricken  natives, 
Columbus  took  solemn  pos 
session  of  the  land  in  the 
name  of  Ferdinand  and  Isa 
bella,  and  called  it  San  Sal-  Columbus's  Flagship,  the  Santa  Maria 
vador  ("  Holy  Saviour  "). 

He  then  continued  his  voyage  among  the  small  islands  of  the  9.  He  is  ais- 
Bahamas,  seeking  the  mainland  of  Cathay  (China).    When  he  not°findingin 

reached  the  apparently  interminable  coast  of  Cuba,  he  was  sure  the  cities  of 
*  Cathay,  and 

that  he  was  at  the  gates  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Great  Khan,  returns  to 

and  that  the  cities  of  China  with  their  fabulous  wealth  would 
soon  hear  the  voice  of  his  Arab  interpreter,  presenting  to  the 
monarch  of  the  East  the  greetings  and  gifts  of  the  sovereigns 
of  Spain.  He  was  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  misfortunes 
which  dogged  his  steps  to  the  end  of  his  life  now  began.  Martin 
Pinzon,  pilot  of  the  Pinta,  deserted  him  on  the  coast  of  Cuba. 
His  largest  caravel,  the  Santa  Maria,  was  wrecked  on  Christmas 


8 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


Day  on  the  coast  of  Hayti,  which  he  mistook  for  the  long-sought 
Cipango,  and  he  hastened  back  to  Spain  in  the  remaining  vessel, 
the  tiny  Nina.  He  was  hailed  with  enthusiasm  by  the  nation, 
and  loaded  with  honors  by  his  sovereigns,  who  had  no  suspicion 
that  he  had  failed  to  reach  the  islands  lying  off  the  rich  lands  of 
the  East,  or  that  he  had  discovered  still  richer  lands  in  the  west. 
Columbus  made  three  more  voyages  to  the  "Indies"  in  1493, 
1498,  and  1502.  On  the  voyage  of  1498  he  discovered  the 

(1493-1502);    mainiand  of  South  America,  and  in  1502  he  sailed  along  the 

his  disgrace 

and  death      coast  of  Central  America,  vainly  attempting  to  find  a  strait 

(1506) 


10.  Colum 
bus 's  later 
voyages 


The  Maura  Medal  (Spain),  struck  to  commemorate  the  Four-Hundredth 
Anniversary  of  Columbus's  Discovery  of  America 

which  would  let  him  through  to  the  main  coast  of  Cathay.  All 
the  while  the  clouds  of  misfortune  were  gathering  about  him. 
His  costly  expeditions  had  so  far  brought  no  wealth  to  Spain. 
While  his  ships  were  skirting  the  pestilential  coasts  of  South 
America,  the  Portuguese  Vasco  da  Gama  had  reached  the  real 
Indies  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  brought  back  to  Lisbon 
cargoes  of  spices,  satins,  damask,  ivory,  and  gold  (see  map, 
p.  10).  The  Spanish  sovereigns  were  jealous  of  the  laurels  of 
the  Portuguese  mariners.  Mutiny,  shipwreck,  and  fever  were 
lighter  evils  for  Columbus  to  contend  with  than  the  plots  of 
his  enemies  and  the  envious  disappointment  of  the  grandees  of 


The  New  World  9 

Spain.  One  of  the  Spanish  governors  of  Hayti  sent  him  home 
in  irons.  His  little  sons,  Diego  and  Ferdinand,  who  were  pages 
in  the  queen's  service,  were  jeered  at  as  they  passed  through 
the  courtyard  of  the  Alhambra :  "  There  go  the  sons  of  the  Ad 
miral  of  the  Mosquitoes,  who  has  discovered  lands  of  vanity  and 
delusion  as  the  miserable  graves  of  Castilian  gentlemen."  Re 
turning  from  his  fourth  voyage  in  1504,  he  found  his  best  friend 
at  court,  Queen  Isabella,  on  her  deathbed ;  and  bowed  with 
discouragement,  illness,  humiliation,  and  poverty,  he  followed 
her  to  the  grave  in  1506.  So  passed  away  in  misery  and  ob 
scurity  a  man  whose  service  to  mankind  was  beyond  calculation. 
His  wonderful  voyage  of  1492  had  linked  together  the  two  hemi 
spheres  of  our  planet,  and  "  mingled  the  two  streams  of  human 
life  which  had  flowed  for  countless  ages  apart "  (John  Fiske).1 

Had  Columbus  and  his  fellow  voyagers  known  that  a  solid  11.  Pope 
barrier  of  land  reaching  from  arctic  to  antarctic  snows,  and  Vps  «de- 
beyond  that  another  ocean  vaster  than  the  one  they  had  just 
crossed,  lay  between  the  islands  they  mistakenly  called  the 
Indies  and  the  real  Indies  of  the  East,  they  would  have  prob 
ably  abandoned  the  thought  of  a  western  route  and  returned  to 
contest  with  Portugal  the  search  for  the  Indies  via  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  As  it  was,  the  Spanish  sovereigns,  confident  that 
their  pilots  had  reached  the  edge  of  Asia,  asked  of  Pope 
Alexander  VI  a  "  bull "  (or  formal  papal  decree)  admitting  them 
to  a  share  with  Portugal  in  all  lands  and  islands  which  should 
be  discovered  in  the  search  for  the  Indies.  The  Pope,  who  was 
quite  generally  recognized  in  Europe  as  the  arbiter  of  inter 
national  disputes,  acceded  to  the  request,  and  in  his  bull  of  1493 

1  Columbus  was  by  no  means  the  first  European  to  visit  the  shores  of  the 
western  continent.  There  are  records  of  a  dozen  or  so  pre-Columbian  voyages 
across  the  Atlantic  by  Arabians,  Japanese,  Welshmen,  Irishmen,  and  French 
men,  besides  the  very  detailed  account  in  the  Icelandic  sagas,  or  stories  of  ad 
venture,  of  the  visit  of  the  Norsemen  to  the  shores  of  the  western  world  in  the 
year  1000.  Under  Lief  the  Lucky  the  Norsemen  built  booths  or  huts  and  re 
mained  for  a  winter  on  some  spot  along  the  coast  of  Labrador  or  New  England. 
But  these  voyages  of  the  Norsemen  to  America  five  hundred  years  before 
Columbus  were  not  of  importance,  because  they  were  not  followed  up  by  explo 
ration  and  permanent  settlement. 


10 


The  New  World  1 1 

divided  the  undiscovered  world  between  Spain  and  Portugal  by 
a  "  demarcation  "  line,  which  was  determined  the  next  year  at 
370  leagues  west  of  the  Cape  Verde  Islands.  All  lands  discov 
ered  to  the  west  of  this  line  were  to  belong  to  Spain ;  those  to 
the  east,  to  Portugal  (see  map,  p.  10). 

The  Pope's  bull,  however,  did  not  deter  the  other  nations  of  12.  John 

ITT       Till.      Cabot  reaches 
Europe  from  taking  part  in  the  search  for  the  Indies  by  both  the  the  mainland 

eastern  and  the  western  routes.  The  honor  of  being  the  first  of  ^conYf-8*" 
the  mariners  of  Columbus's  time  to  reach  the  mainland  of  the  nent,  1497 
western  continent  belongs  to  John  Cabot,  an  Italian  in  the  serv 
ice  of  King  Henry  VII  of  England.  In  the  summer  of  1497, 
while  the  Spanish  navigators  were  still  tarrying  among  the  West 
Indies,  Cabot  sailed  with  one  ship  from  Bristol,  and  after  plant 
ing  the  banner  of  England  somewhere  on  the  coast  of  Labrador, 
returned  to  plan  a  larger  expedition.  The  voyage  of  1 497  created 
great  excitement  in  England  for  a  time.  "  This  Venetian  of 
ours  who  went  in  search  of  new  islands  is  returned,"  wrote  an 
Italian  in  London  to  his  brother  at  home ;  "  his  name  is  Zuan 
Cabot,  and  they  all  call  him  the  great  admiral.  Vast  honor  is 
paid  him,  and  he  dresses  in  silk.  These  English  run  after  him 
like  mad  people."  The  more  prosaic  account  book  of  Henry  VII 
contains  the  entry:  "  To  hym  that  found  the  new  isle  io£."  But 
interest  in  Cabot's  voyage  soon  died  out.  The  importance  of  the 
voyage  for  us  is  that  it  was  for  two  centuries  made  the  basis  of 
England's  claims  to  the  whole  mainland  of  North  America. 

Cabot's  name  is  not  connected  with  mountain,  river,  state,  or  13.  The 
town  in  the  New  World,  but  the  name  of  another  Italian  became 
the  birth  name  of  the  continent.    Amerigo  Vespucci  was  a 
Florentine  merchant  established  at  Cadiz  in  Spain.    He  helped  vespucius), 
fit  out  Columbus's  fleet,  and  catching  the  fever  for  maritime  ad 
venture,  he  joined  the  goodly  company  of  navigators.    In  1501 
he  made  a  most  remarkable  voyage  in  the  service  of  the  king 
of  Portugal.    Sailing  from  Lisbon,  he  struck  the  coast  of  South 
America  at  Cape  San  Roque,  and  running  south  to  the  thirty- 
fourth  parallel,  found  the  constant  westward  trend  of  the  coast 


12  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

carrying  him  across  the  Pope's  line  separating  Portuguese  from 
Spanish  territory.  So  he  turned  south  by  east  into  the  Atlantic, 
and  reached  the  icebound  crags  of  a  desert  island,  54°  south 
latitude.  Again  heading  northeast,  he  struck  boldly  across  the 
south  Atlantic  and  reached  the  coast  of  Sierra  Leone  in  a  straight 
course  of  four  thousand  miles  (see  map,  p.  10).  This  voyage, 
which  lasted  over  a  year,  showed  that  the  land  along  whose 
northern  shores  the  Spanish  navigators  had  sailed  was  not  an 
island  off  the  southeastern  coast  of  Asia,  but  a  great  continent. 
It  led  also  to  the  naming  of  the  western  continent. 
14.  The  Vespucci  wrote  to  Italian  friends  :  "  We  found  what  may  be 

reveaieTbJ?'"  ca^£d  a  new  world  .  .  .  since  most  of  the  ancients  said  that  there 
Vespucci's 

Nuc  ;^o  &  hg  partes  funt  latius  Iuftrat#/8£  alia 
quattapars  per  America  Vefputiu(vt  in  fequenti 
bus  audietur  )inuenta  eft/qua  non  video  cur  quis 
jure  vetet'ab  Amerlco  inuentore  fagacis  ingenij  vi 
to  Amerigenquafi  Amelia  terra  /  flue  Americana 
dicendi:  * 

Facsimile  of  Page  in  Waldseemiiller's  Edition  of  Ptolemy's  "Geography" 
(1507),  suggesting  the  Name  of  America 

was  no  continent  below  the  equator."  Vespucci's  "new  world," 
then,  was  a  new  southern  continent.  In  1507  the  faculty  of  the 
college  of  St.  Die,  in  the  Vosges  Mountains,  were  preparing  a 
new  edition  of  Ptolemy's  "  Geography."  Martin  Waldseemiiller 
wrote  an  introduction  to  the  edition,  in  which  he  included  one 
of  Vespucci's  letters,  and  made  the  suggestion  that  since  in  addi 
tion  to  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  "  another  fourth  part  has  been 
discovered  by  Americus  Vespudus  .  .  .  I  do  not  see  what  fairly 
hinders  us  from  calling  it  Amerige  or  America,  viz.,  the  land  of 
Americus"  At  the  same  time  Waldseemiiller  made  a  map  of 
the  world  on  which  he  placed  the  new  continent  and  named  it 
America.  This  map  was  lost  for  centuries,  and  scholars  were 
almost  convinced  that  it  never  existed,  when  in  the  summer  of 


The  New  World  13 

1901  an  Austrian  professor  found  it  in  the  library  of  a  castle  in 
Wiirttemberg.  It  had  evidently  circulated  enough  before  its  dis 
appearance  to  fix  the  name  "America"  on  the  new  southern 
continent,  whence  it  spread  to  the  land  north  of  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama.1 

The  admirers  of  Columbus  from  the  sixteenth  century  to  15.  why  the 

...       .          f    ,  New  World 

the  twentieth  have  cried  out  against  the  injustice  ot  the  name  Wft6  not 

"America"  instead  of  "  Columbia"  for  the  New  World,  "as  if  *asnj^1for 

the  Sistine  Madonna  had  been  called  not  by  Raphael's  name,  discoverer, 

Columbus 
but  by  the  name  of  the  man  who  first  framed  it."    But  there 

was  no  injustice  done,  at  least  with  intent.  "  America  "  was  a 
name  invented  for  what  was  thought  to  be  a  new  world  south 
of  the  equator,  whereas  Columbus  and  his  associates  believed 
that  they  had  only  found  a  new  way  to  the  Old  World.  When  it 
was  realized  that  Columbus  had  really  discovered  the  new  world 
of  which  Vespucci  wrote,  it  was  too  late  to  remedy  the  mistake 
in  the  name.  So  it  came  about  that  this  continent  was  named, 
by  an  obscure  German  professor  in  a  French  college,  after  an 
Italian  navigator  in  the  service  of  the  king  of  Portugal. 

A  CENTURY  OF  EXPLORATION 

From  the  death  of  Columbus  (1506)  to  the  planting  of  the  16.  The 
first  permanent  English  colony  on  the  shores  of  America  (1607) 


just  a  century  elapsed,  —  a  century  filled  with  romantic  voyages  the  sixteenth 
and  thrilling  tales  of  exploration  and  conquest  in  the  New  World. 
Nowadays  men  explore  new  countries  for  scientific  study  of 
the  native  races  or  the  soil  and  its  products,  or  to  open  up  new 
markets  for  trade  and  develop  the  hidden  resources  of  the  land  ; 
but  in  the  romantic  sixteenth  century  Spanish  noblemen  tramped 

1  Although  Waldseemiiller  himself  dropped  the  name  "  America  "  when  he 
realized  that  this  was,  after  all,  the  land  discovered  by  Columbus  in  1498,  and  in 
the  same  edition  of  Ptolemy  for  which  he  had  written  the  Introduction,  labeled 
South  America  "  terra  incognita  "  ("  unknown  land  "),  the  name  "  America  "  soon 
reappeared  and  gradually  spread  to  the  northern  continent  until,  in  1541, 
the  geographer  Mercator  applied  it  to  the  whole  mainland  from  Labrador  to 
Patagonia. 


1 4  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

through  the  swamps  and  tangles  of  Florida  to  find  the  fountain 
of  perpetual  youth,  or  toiled  a  thousand  miles  over  the  western 
desert,  lured  by  the  dazzling  gold  of  fabled  cities  of  splendor. 
The  sixteenth  century  was  furthermore  a  century  of  intense  reli 
gious  belief ;  so  we  find  a  grim  spirit  of  missionary  zeal  mingled 
with  the  thirst  for  gold.  The  cross  was  planted  in  the  wilderness, 
^  and  the  soldiers  knelt  in  thanksgiving  on  the  ground  stained  by 
the  blood  of  their  heretical  neighbors. 

17.  Eastern       Of  course  it  was  Asia  with  its  fabulous  wealth,  not  America 
object  of  the  with  its  savage  tracts  and  tribes,  which  was  the  real  goal  of 
search618'      European  explorers.   Until  even  far  into  the  seventeenth  century 

the  mariners  were  searching  the  northern  coast  of  America  for 
a  way  around  the  continent,  and  hailing  the  broad  mouth  of  each 
new  river  as  a  possible  passage  to  the  Indies.  Columbus  in  his 
fourth  voyage  (1502)  had  skirted  the  coast  of  Central  America 
to  find  the  passage  to  Cathay,  and  Vespucci  in  his  great  voy 
age  of  1501-1502  had  followed  the  South  American  coast  far 
enough  to  demonstrate  that  he  had  found  a  "  new  world,"  even 
if  he  had  not  discovered  a  gateway  to  the  East. 

18.  Magei-        With  Columbus  and  Vespucci  we  must  rank  a  third  mariner, 
sails  around  Ferdinand  Magellan,  a  Portuguese  in  the  service  of  the  king 

°f  Spain.  In  September,  1519,  Magellan  with  five  ships  and 
about  three  hundred  men  started  on  what  proved  to  be  perhaps 
the  most  romantic  voyage  in  history.  Reaching  the  Brazilian 
coast,  he  made  his  way  south,  and  after  quelling  a  dangerous 
mutiny  in  his  winter  quarters  on  the  bleak  coast  of  Patagonia, 
entered  the  narrow  straits  (since  called  by  his  name)  at  the 
extremity  of  South  America.  A  stormy  passage  of  five  weeks 
through  the  tortuous  narrows  brought  him  out  on  the  calm 
waters  of  an  ocean  to  which,  in  grateful  relief,  he  gave  the 
name  "  Pacific." 1  Magellan  met  worse  trials  than  storms,  how 
ever,  when  he  put  out  into  the  Pacific.  Week  after  week  he 

1  Magellan  was  not  the  first  European  to  see  that  great  ocean.  Several  years 
earlier  the  Spaniard  Balboa,  with  an  exploring  party  from  Hayti,  had  crossed  the 
isthmus  now  named  Panama,  and  discovered  the  Pacific,  to  which  he  gave  the 
name  «  South  Sea," 


The  New  World  1  5 

sailed  westward  across  the  smiling  but  apparently  interminable 
sea,  little  dreaming  that  he  had  embarked  on  waters  which  cover 
nearly  half  the  globe.  Hunger  grew  to  starvation,  thirst  to  mad 
ness.  Twice  on  the  voyage  of  ten  thousand  miles  land  appeared 
to  the  eyes  of  the  famished  sailors,  only  to  prove  a  barren, 
rocky  island.  At  last  the  inhabited  islands  of  Australasia  were 
reached.  Magellan  himself  was  killed  in  a  fight  with  the  natives 
of  the  Philippine  Islands,  but  his  sole  seaworthy  ship,  the  Vic 
toria,  continued  westward  across  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  rounding 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  reached  Lisbon  with  a  crew  of  eighteen 
"ghostlike  men,"  September  6,  1522. 

Magellan's  ship  had  circumnavigated  the  globe.    His  wonder-  19.  signifi- 
ful  voyage  proved  conclusively  the  sphericity  of  the  earth,  and  Magellan's 


showed  the  great  preponderance  of  water  over  land.  It  demon- 
strated  that  America  was  not  a  group  of  islands  off  the  Asiatic 
coast  (as  Columbus  had  thought),  nor  even  a  southern  conti 
nent  reaching  down  in  a  peninsula  from  the  corner  of  China 
(see  maps,  pp.  18-19),  but  a  continent  set  in  its  own  hemisphere, 
and  separated  on  the  west  from  the  old  world  of  Cathay  by  a 
far  greater  expanse  of  water  than  on  the  east  from  the  old  world 
of  Europe.  It  still  required  generations  of  explorers  to  develop 
the  true  size  and  shape  of  the  western  continent  ;  but  Magellan's 
wonderful  voyage  had  located  the  continent  at  last  in  its  relation 
to  the  known  countries  of  the  world. 

While  Magellan's  starving  sailors  were  battling  their  way  20.  cortez's 
across  the  Pacific,  stirring  scenes  were  being  enacted  in  Mexico.  Mexico8*  °f 
The  Spaniards,  starting  from  Hayti  as  a  base,  had  conquered 
and  colonized  Porto  Rico  and  Cuba  (1508),  and  sent  expedi 
tions  west  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  (Balboa,  1513),  and  north 
to  Florida  (Ponce  de  Leon,  1513).  In  1519  Hernando  Cortez, 
a  Spanish  adventurer  of  great  courage  and  sagacity,  was  sent 
by  the  governor  of  Cuba  to  conquer  and  plunder  the  rich  Indian 
kingdom  which  explorers  had  found  to  the  north  of  the  isthmus. 
This  was  the  Aztec  confederacy  of  Indian  tribes  under  an 
"  emperor,"  Montezuma.  The  land  was  rich  in  silver  and  gold  ; 


1 6  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

the  people  were  skilled  in  art  and  architecture.  They  had  an 
elaborate  religion  with  splendid  temples,  but  practiced  the  cruel 
rite  of  human  sacrifices.  Their  capital  city  of  Mexico  was  situ 
ated  on  an  island  in  the  middle  of  a  lake,  and  approached  by 
four  causeways  from  the  four  cardinal  points  of  the  compass. 
One  of  their  religious  legends  told  of  a  fair-haired  god  of  the  sky 
(Quetzacoatl),  who  had  been  driven  out  to  sea,  but  who  would 
return  again  to  rule  over  them  in  peace  and  plenty.  When  the 
natives  saw  the  Spaniard  with  his  "  white-winged  towers  "  mov 
ing  on  the  sea,  they  thought  that  the  "  fair  god  "  had  returned. 
Cortez  was  not  slow  to  follow  up  this  advantage.  His  belching 
cannon  and  armored  knights  increased  the  superstitious  awe 
of  the  natives.  By  a  rare  combination  of  courage  and  intrigue, 
Cortez  seized  their  ruler,  Montezuma,  captured  their  capital,  and 
made  their  ancient  and  opulent  realm  a  dependency  of  Spain 
(1521).  It  was  the  first  sure  footing  of  the  Spaniards  on  the 
American  continent,  and  served  as  an  important  base  for  further 
exploration  and  conquest. 

21.  Spanish  The  twenty  years  following  Cortez's  conquest  of  Mexico 
Fn^Ameri^a  m^rk  the  height  of  Spanish  exploration  in  America.  From 
1520-1550  Kansas  to  Chile,  and  from  the  Carolinas  to  the  Pacific,  the  flag 
and  speech  of  Spain  were  carried.  No  feature  of  excitement 
and  romance  is  absent  from  the  vivid  accounts  which  the  heroes 
of  these  expeditions  have  left  us.  Now  it  is  a  survivor  of  ship 
wreck  in  the  Mexican  Gulf,  making  his  way  from  tribe  to  tribe 
across  the  vast  stretches  of  Texas  and  Mexico  to  the  Gulf  of 
California  (Cabeza  de  Vaca,  1528—1536) ;  now  it  is  the  ruffian 
captain  Pizarro,  repeating  south  of  the  isthmus  the  conquest 
of  Cortez,  and  adding  the  untold  wealth  of  the  silver  mines  of 
Peru  to  the  Spanish  treasury  (1531-1533);  now  it  is  the  noble 
governor  De  Soto,  with  his  train  of  six  hundred  knights  in 
"doublets  and  cassocks  of  silk"  and  his  priests  in  splendid 
vestments,  with  his  Portuguese  in  shining  armor,  his  horses, 
hounds,  and  hogs,  all  ready  for  a  triumphal  procession  to  king 
doms  of  gold  and  ivory  —  but  doomed  to  toil,  with  his  famished 


The  New  World  I/ 

and  ambushed  host,  through  tangle  and  swamp  from  Georgia 
to  Arkansas,  and  finally  to  leave  his  fever-stricken  body  at  the 
bottom  of  the  Mississippi,  beneath  the  waters  "  alwaies  muddie, 
down  which  there  came  continually  manie  trees  and  timber" 
(1538-1542);  now  it  is  Coronado  and  his  three  hundred  fol 
lowers,  intent  on  finding  the  seven  fabled  cities  of  Cibola,  and 
chasing  the  golden  mirage  of  the  western  desert  from  the  Pacific 
coast  of  Mexico  to  the  present  state  of  Kansas  (1540-1542). 
For  all  this  vast  expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure,  not  a  Spanish 
settlement  existed  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  in  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  The  Spaniards  were  gold  seekers,  not 
colonizers.  They  had  found  a  few  savages  living  in  cane  houses 
and  mud  pueblos,  but  the  fountain  of  perpetual  youth  and  the 
cities  of  gold  they  had  not  found.  They  could  not,  of  course, 
foresee  the  wealth  which  one  day  would  be  derived  from  the 
rich  lands  through  which  they  had  so  painfully  struggled  ;  and 
the  survivors  returned  to  the  Mexican  towns  discouraged  and 
disillusioned. 

South  and  west  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  however,  and  in  the  22.  The 
islands  of  the  West  Indies  the  Spaniards  had  built  up  a  huge  gmpke  in 


empire.  The  discovery  of  gold'  in  Hayti,  and  the  conquest  of  the  America 
rich  treasures  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  brought  thousands  of  ad 
venturers  and  tens  of  thousands  of  negro  slaves  to  tropical 
America.  Spain  governed  the  American  lands  despotically. 
Commerce  and  justice  were  exclusively  regulated  through  the 
"  India  House  "  at  Seville.  The  Spanish  culture  was  intro 
duced.  In  the  year  1536  a  printing  press  was  set  up,1  and 
shortly  after  the  middle  of  the  century  universities  were  opened 
in  Mexico  and  Peru.  The  essential  features  of  the  Spanish  gov 
ernment  also  were  brought  across  the  ocean,  —  its  absolutism 
in  government  and  in  religion.  Trade  was  restricted  to  certain 
ports  ;  heretics  and  their  descendants  to  the  third  generation 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  more  than  a  century  later  Governor  Berkeley  of 
the  English  colony  of  Virginia  "  thanked  God  that  the  colony  had  no  printing 
press  or  schools,  and  hoped  that  it  would  have  none  for  a  hundred  years." 


i8 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


The  Lenox  Globe  (1510)  showing  the  New  World  as  an  Island 
off  the  Coast  of  Asia 


Finseus'  Map  (1531)  showing  the  New  World  (America)  as  a  Peninsula 
attached  to  Asia 


The  New  World 


Miinster's  Map  (1540)  showing  Land  North  of  the  Isthmus  attached 
to  the  New  World 


Mercator's  Map  (1541)  showing  the  Name  "America"  for  the 
First  Time  applied  to  the  Whole  Continent 


20 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


23.  Bartolo- 
meo  las  Casas 


24.  French 
explorers 
in  North 
America ; 
Verrazano 
and  Cartier 


were  excluded  from  the  colonies ;  the  natives  were  almost  e'xte'r- 
minated  by  the  rigors  of  the  slave  driver  in  the  mines.  The  land 
was  the  property  of  the  sovereign,  and  by  him  was  granted  to 
nobles,  who,  under  the  guise  of  protecting  and  converting  the 
natives,  made  their  fiefs  great  slave  estates,  and  treated  both 
Indians  and  negroes  with  frightful  cruelty. 

On  the  dark  background  of  the  Spanish- American  slave  sys 
tem  one  figure  stands  out  in  dazzling  moral  brightness,  —  the 
saintly  bishop,  Las  Casas,  who  in  an  age  when  slavery  was  gen 
erally  practiced  by  the  most  enlightened  nations  of  the  world, 
devoted  his  life  to  the  emancipation  of  the  negro  and  Indian 
slaves  in  Spanish  America.  Las  Casas  came  out  to  the  Indies 
in  1502.  He  was  himself  a  slave  owner,  until,  converted  by  the 
sermon  of  a  Dominican  friar,  he  freed  his  own  slaves  and  en 
tered  on  his  long  crusade  for  emancipation.  Contending  against 
hatred,  jealousy,  and  court  intrigue,  he  persuaded  the  emperor 
Charles  V  to  put  an  emancipation  clause  in  the  "  New  Laws  " 
for  the  Indies  (1542),  and  brought  the  document  to  America 
to  enforce  in  person.  In  one  of  the  worst  regions  of  Central 
America,  called  the  "  land  of  war,"  he  demonstrated  the  pos 
sibility  of  human  brotherhood  by  establishing  a  free  colony  and 
winning  the  love  and  devotion  of  the  natives.  His  "  History 
of  the  Indies  "  is  one  of  the  mos.t  valuable  accounts  of  Spanish 
America  in  the  earliest  years. 

The  Spaniards  were  the  chief,  but  not  the  only,  explorers  in 
America  in  the  sixteenth  century.  In  1524  the  king  of  France, 
scorning  the  papal  bull  of  1493,  and  jocosely  asking  to  see  old 
Adam's  will  bequeathing  the  world  to  Spain  and  Portugal,  sent 
his  Italian  navigator,  Verrazano,  to  seek  the  Indies  by  the  west 
ern  route.  Verrazano  sailed  and  charted  the  coast  of  North 
America  from  Labrador  to  the  Carolinas,  but  did  not  find  a 
route  to  Asia.  Ten  years  later  Jacques  Cartier  sailed  up  the 
St.  Lawrence  River  to  the  Indian  village  on  the  site  of  Mont 
real.  There  his  way  to  China  was  blocked  by  the  rapids  which 
he  named  Lachine  (the  "  China "  rapids).  But  wars,  foreign 


The  New  World  21 

and  civil,  absorbed  the  strength  of  France  during  the  last  half 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  and,  with  one  trifling  exception,  projects 
of  colonization  slept  until  the  return  of  peace  and  the  accession 
to  the  throne  of  the  glorious  King  Henry  of  Navarre  (1598). 

War,  which  was  the  death  of  French  enterprise,  was  the  very  25.  TheEng- 
life  of  English  colonial  activity,  which  had  languished  since 
John  Cabot's  day.  England  and  Spain  became  bitter  rivals — 
religious,  commercial,  political — during  Elizabeth's  reign  (1558- 
1603).  England  was  fighting  for  her  very  life  and  the  life  of 
the  Protestant  cause  against  the  aggressive  Catholic  monarch 
Philip  II.  She  had  no  army  to  attack  Philip  in  his  Spanish  penin 
sula,  but  she  sent  troops  to  aid  the  revolting  Netherlands,  and 
struck  at  the  very  roots  of  Philip's  power  by  attacking  his 
treasure-laden  fleets  from  the  Indies.  England's  dauntless  sea 
men,  Hawkins,  Davis,  Cavendish,  and  above  all  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  performed  marvels  of  daring  against  the  Spaniards, 
scouring  the  coasts  of  America  and  the  high  seas  for  their 
treasure  ships,  fighting  single-handed  against  whole  fleets,  cir 
cumnavigating  the  globe  with  their  booty,  and  even  sailing  into 
the  harbors  of  Spain  to  "  singe  King  Philip's  beard  "  by  burn 
ing  his  ships  and  docks. 

From  capturing  the  Spanish  gold  on  the  seas  to  contending  26.  Attempts 
with  Spain  for  the  possession  of  the  golden  land  was  but  a 
step ;  and  we  find  the  veteran  soldier,  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert, 
receiving  in  1578  a  patent  from  Queen  Elizabeth  to  "  inhabit  and  1578-1591 
possess  all  remote  and  heathen  lands  not  in  the  actual  possession 
of  any  Christian  prince."  Gilbert  was  unsuccessful  in  founding  a 
colony  on  the  bleak  coast  of  Newfoundland,  and  his  little  ship 
foundered  on  her  return  voyage.  His  patent  was  handed  on  to 
his  half-brother,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  Elizabeth's  favorite  courtier. 
Raleigh's  ships  sought  milder  latitudes,  and  a  colony  was  landed 
on  Roanoke  Island,  off  the  coast  of  North  Carolina  (1585).  The 
land,  at  Elizabeth's  own  suggestion,  was  named  "Virginia,"  in 
honor  of  the  "  Virgin  Queen."  The  colonists  sought  diligently  for 
gold  and  explored  the  coasts  and  rivers  for  a  passage  to  Cathay. 


22  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

But  misfortune  overtook  them,  supplies  failed  to  come  from 
England  on  time,  and  the  colony  was  abandoned.  Again  and 
again  Raleigh  tried  to  found  an  enduring  settlement  (1585, 
1587,  1588,  1591),  but  the  struggle  with  Spain  absorbed  the 
attention  of  the  nation,  and  the  planters  preferred  gold  hunting 
to  agriculture.  Rateigh  sank  a  private  fortune  equivalent  to  a 
million  dollars  in  his  enterprise,  and  finally  abandoned  it  with 
the  optimistic  prophecy  to  Lord  Cecil :  "I  shall  yet  live  to  see 
it  an  Inglishe  nation."  He  did  live  to  see  the  beginnings  of  an 
"  Inglishe  nation  "  in  Virginia,  but  it  was  from  his  prison,  where 
he  lay  under  sentence  of  death,  treacherously  procured  by  the 
envy  of  the  Stuart  king  who  followed  the  "  spacious  times  of 
great  Elizabeth." 

27.  The  The  opening  of  the  seventeenth  century  found  America,  north 
can  Indian^""  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  (except  for  one  or  two  feeble  Spanish 

settlements),  still  the  undisputed  possession  of  the  native  Indian 
tribes.  Wherever  the  European  visitors  had  struck  the  western 
continent,  whether  on  the  shores  of  Labrador  or  the  tropical 
islands  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  on  the  wide  plains  of  the  south 
west  or  the  slopes  of  the  Andes,  they  had  found  a  scantily  clad, 
copper-colored  race  of  men  with  high  cheek  bones  and  straight 
black  hair.  Columbus,  thinking  he  had  reached  the  Indies, 
called  the  curious,  friendly  inhabitants  who  came  running  down 
to  his  ships,  Indians,  and  that  inappropriate  name  has  been  used 
ever  since  to  designate  the  natives  of  the  western  hemisphere. 

28.  civiiiza-        None  of  the  North  American  Indians  had  reached  the  stage 
Indians**!6       °f  civilization  characterized  by  an  alphabet  and  literature,  al- 

tnouS^  a^  ^>ut  some  Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  coast  tribes 
had  passed  beyond  the  stage  of  the  savage  hunter,  housed  in 
his  flimsy  tepee  or  skin  tent,  and  living  on  the  quarry  of 
his  bow  and  arrow.  In  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  South 
America  the  Spanish  explorers  and  conquerors  found  a  higher 
native  development  in  art,  industry,  mythology,  architecture, 
and  agriculture  than  was  later  found  among  the  Indians  of  the 
north.  Even  the  germ  of  an  organized  state  existed  in  the  Aztec 


The  New  World  23 

confederacy  of  Mexico.  Huge  pueblos,  or  communal  houses, 
made  of  adobe  (clay),  were  built  around  a  square  or  semicircular 
court  in  rising  tiers  reached  by  ladders.  A  single  pueblo  some 
times  housed  a  thousand  persons.  The  Aztec  and  Inca  chiefs 
in  Mexico  and  Peru  lived  in  elaborately  decorated  "  palaces." 
Still  the  natives  of  these  regions  were  by  no  means  so  highly 
civilized  a  race  as  the  exaggerated  accounts  of  the  Spanish  con 
querors  often  imply.  They  had  not  invented  such  simple  con 
trivances  as  stairs,  chimneys,  and  wheeled  vehicles.  They  could 
neither  forge  iron  nor  build  arched  bridges.  Their  intellectual 
range  is  shown  by  the  knotted  strings  which  they  used  for 
mathematical  calculations,  and  their  moral  degradation  appears 
in  the  shocking  human  sacrifices  of  their  barbarous  religion. 

The  Indian  tribes  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  had  generally  29.  The 
reached  the  stage  of  development  called  "  lower  barbarism,"  a  Jt 
stage  of  pottery  making  and  rude  agricultural  science.  Midway  of  Mexico 
between  the  poor  tepee  of  the  Pacific  coast  savage  and  the  im 
posing  pueblo  of  Mexico  was  the  ordinary  "  long  house  "  or 
"  round  house  "  of  the  village  Indians  from  Canada  to  Florida. 
The  house  was  built  of  stout  saplings,  covered  with  bark  or  a 
rough  mud  plaster.  Along  a  central  aisle,  or  radiating  from  a 
central  hearth,  were  ranged  the  separate  family  compartments, 
divided  by  thin  walls.  Forty  or  fifty  families  usually  lived  in 
the  house,  sharing  their  food  of  corn,  beans,  pumpkins,  wild 
turkey,  fish,  bear,  and  buffalo  meat  in  common.  Only  their 
clothing,  ornaments,  and  weapons  were  personal  property.  The 
women  of  the  tribe  prepared  the  food,  tended  the  children, 
made  the  utensils  and  ornaments  of  beads,  feathers,  and  skins, 
and  strung  the  polished  shells  or  "  wampum  "  which  the  Indian 
used  for  money  and  for  correspondence.  The  men  were  occupied 
with  war,  the  hunt,  and  the  council.  In  their  leisure  they  repaired 
their  bows,  sharpened  new  arrowheads,  or  stretched  the  smooth 
bark  of  the  birch  tree  over  their  canoe  frames.  They  had  a  great 
variety  of  games  and  dances,  solemn  and  gay  ;  and  they  loved  to 
bask  idly  in  the  sun,  too,  like  the  Mississippi  negro  of  to-day. 


The  New  World  2$ 

In  character  the  Indian  showed  the  most  astonishing  extremes, 
now  immovable  as  a  rock,  now  capricious  as  the  April  breeze. 
Around  the  council  fire  he  was  taciturn,  dignified,  thoughtful, 
but  in  the  dance  he  broke  into  unrestrained  and  uncontrollable 
ecstasies.  He  bore  with  stoical  fortitude  the  most  horrible  tor 
tures  at  the  stake,  but  howled  in  his  wigwam  over  an  injured  fin 
ger.  His  powers  of,  smell,  sight,  and  hearing  were  incredibly  keen 
on  the  hunt  or  the  warpath,  but  at  the  same  time  he  showed  a 
stolid  stupidity  that  no  white  man  could  match.  The  Indian  seems 
to  have,  been  generally  friendly  to  the  European  on  their  first 
meeting,  and  it  was  chiefly  the  fault  of  the  white  man's  cruelty 
and  treachery  that  the  friendly  curiosity  of  the  red  man  was 
turned  so  often  into  malignant  hatred  instead  of  firm  alliance. 

There  were  probably  never  more  than  a  few  hundred  thou-  30.  The 
sand  Indians  in  America.  Their  small  number  perhaps  accounts  Indians 
for  -their  lack  of  civilization.  At  any  rate  their  development 
reached  its  highest  point  in  the  thickly  settled  funnel-shaped 
region  south  of  the  Mexican  boundary,  where  it  has  been  sug 
gested  that  they  were  crowded  by  the  advance  of  a  glacial  ice 
sheet  from  the  north.  There  are  about  225,000  Indians  living 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  United  States.  Many  tribes  have 
died  out;  others  have  been  almost  completely  exterminated  or  as 
similated  by  the  whites.  The  surviving  Indians,  on  their  western 
reservations  or  in  the  government  schools,  are  rapidly  learning 
the  ways  of  the  white  men.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  their  education  . 
will  be  wisely  fostered,  and  that  instead  of  the  billion  dollars  spent 
on  the  forty  Indian  wars  of  the  nineteenth  century,  a  few  hundred 
thousand  dollars  spent  in  the  twentieth  century  on  Indian  schools 
like  Hampton  and  Carlisle  will  forever  divest  the  word  "  Indian  "l 
of  its  associations  with  the  tomahawk,  torture,  and  treachery.1 

1  The  Indians,  though  always  a  subject  of  much  curiosity,  have  only  recently 
been  studied  scientifically.  Our  government,  yielding  to  the  entreaties  of  scholars 
who  realized  how  fast  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  natives  were  disappearing, 
established  in  1879  a  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  for  the  careful  study  of  the  surviving 
vestiges  of  Indian  life.  To  the  reports  of  this  bureau  and  to  the  researches  of 
scholars  and  explorers  connected  with  our  various  museums  we  are  indebted  for 
a  great  deal  of  valuable  and  fascinating  information  about  the  Indians. 


26 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


REFERENCES 

The  Discovery  of  America :  JOHN  FISKE,  The  Discovery  of  America, 
Vol.  I ;  E.  P.  CHEYNEY,  The  European  Background  of  American  History 
(The  American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  i-v ;  E.  G.  BOURNE,  Spain  in 
America  (Am.  Nation),  chaps,  i-vii;  Cambridge  Modern  History,  Vol.  I, 
chap,  i ;  OLSON  and  BOURNE,  The  Northmen,  Columbus,  and  Cabot 
(Original  Narratives  of  Early  American  History);  JUSTIN  WINSOR, 
Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,  Vol.  I,  chap,  i ;  Vol.  II, 
chaps,  i-ii. 

A  Century  of  Exploration :  FISKE,  Vol.  II ;  BOURNE,  chaps,  viii-xv ; 
Cambridge  Modern  History,  chap,  ii ;  WINSOR,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  iv,  vi,  vii, 
ix;  Vol.  Ill,  chaps,  i-iii;  HODGE  and  LEWIS,  Spanish  Explorers  in  the 
Southern  United  States  (Orig.  Narr.);  H.  S.  BURRAGE,  Early  English 
and  French  Voyagers  (Orig.  Narr.) ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told 
by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  I,  Nos.  21-35;  EDW.  CHANNING,  History  of 
the  United  States,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  iii-v ;  L.  FARRAND,  Basis  of  American 
History  (Am.  Nation),  chaps,  v-xvii. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  Geographical  Knowledge  before  Columbus  :  WINSOR,  Vol.  I,  pp.  1-33; 
FISKE,  Vol.  I,  pp.  256-294;  CHEYNEY,  pp.  41-78. 

2.  Columbus's   First   Voyage :    OLSON   and   BOURNE   (Orig.   Narr.), 
pp.  89-258   (Columbus's  journal);    FISKE,  Vol.  I,  pp.  419-446;  Old 
South  Leaflets,  Nos.  29  and  33  (descriptions  »f  voyage  by  Columbus  and 
by  his  son). 

3.  De  Soto's  Journey  to  the  Mississippi :  HODGE  and  LEWIS  (Orig. 
Narr.),  pp.  129-272  ;  BOURNE,  pp.  162-170 ;  WINSOR,  Vol.  II,  pp.  244-254. 

4.  Raleigh's  Attempts  to  found  a  Colony  in  Virginia :  BURRAGE  (Orig. 
Narr.),  pp.  225-323;  HART,  No.  32;  WINSOR,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  105-116; 
Old  South  Leaflets,  Nos.  92,  119. 

5.  The  American  Indians:    FISKE,  Vol.  I,  pp.  38-147;    FARRAND, 
pp.  195-271 ;  HART,  Nos.  21,  60,  64,  91. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  ENGLISH  COLONIES 

THE  OLD  DOMINION 

Queen  Elizabeth's  long  and  glorious  reign  came  to  an  end  31. 
in  1603,  when  she  was  succeeded  on  the  throne  of  England  by 
James  Stuart  of  Scotland,1  son  of  her  ill-fated  cousin  and  rival,  century 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  With  the  Age  of  Elizabeth  there  passed 
also  the  age  of  romance  and  chivalry.  The  gorgeous  dreams  of 
treasure  and  empire  which  filled  the  minds  of  the  explorers  of 
the  sixteenth  century  faded  into  the  sober  realization  of  the 
hardships  involved  in  settling  the  wild  and  distant  regions  of  the 
New  World.  True,  the  search  for  gold  and  for  the  northwest 
passage  to  the  Indies,  the  plans  for  the  wholesale  conversion 
of  the  Indians,  and  the  erection  of  splendid  kingdoms  in  the 
heart  of  America  still  lingered  on  into  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury  and  died  slowly.  But  these  ideas  lingered  only ;  they  were 
not,  as  earlier,  the  spring  and  motive  of  the  expeditions  to 
America.  To  them  succeeded  the  study  of  the  soil  and  prod 
ucts  of  the  New  World,  the  charting  of  its  coasts  and  rivers, 
the  defense  of  the  infant  settlements  against  the  Indians,  the 
transportation  from  Europe  of  tools  and  animals,  the  patient 
waiting  for  the  slow  returns  of  agricultural  investment,  —  in  a 
word,  all  that  goes  to  make  a  permanent,  self-sufficing  com 
munity,  a  home. 

1  Since  all  the  English  colonies  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  Georgia,  were  settled  under  the  Stuart  kings,  whose  names  will  occur 
constantly  in  the  pages  of  this  chapter,  it  will  be  convenient  for  the  student 
to  review  the  main  facts  of  the  rule  of  the  Stuart  dynasty  in  Cheyney's  Short 
History  of  England,  chaps,  xiv-xvi,  or  more  briefly  in  Robinson's  History  of 
Western  Europe,  chap.  xxx. 

27 


28 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


32.  King 


London  and 
Plymouth 
companies, 
1606 


King  James  I 
in  the  year  16.06 
gave  permis 
sion  to  "certain 
loving  subjects 
to  deduce  and 
conduct  two  sev 
eral  colonies  or 
plantations  of 
settlers  to  Amer 
ica."  The  Stuart 
king  had  begun 
his  reign  with  a 
pompous  an 
nouncement  of 
peace  with  all  his 
European  neigh- 
bors;  conse 
quently,  though 
England  claimed 
all  North  Amer 
ica  by  virtue  of 
Cabot's  discov 
ery  of  i497> 
James  limited 
the  territory  of 
his  grant  so  as 
not  to  encroach 
either  on  the 
Spanish  settle 
ments  of  Florida 
or  the  French 
interests  about 
the  St.  Lawrence. 
One  group  of 


WiK  to  41  '       »  V 
<  xt'ru'l   100  mVles  inlandl) 

Charter  of  1609  to  London  Co.  "Land  200  miles  north  and  south 
of  Point  Comfort,  lying  from  the  seacoast  up  into  the  land  from 
sea  to  sea,  west  and  northwest." 

85°  80"  


The  Virginia  Grants  of  1606  and  1609 


The  English  Colonies  29 

"loving  subjects,"  called  the  London  Company,  was  to  have 
exclusive  right  to  settle  between  34°  and  38°  of  north  latitude 
(see  map) ;  the  other  group,  the  Plymouth  Company,  was  granted 
the  equally  broad  region  between  41°  and  45°.  The  neutral 
belt  from  38°  to  41°  was  left  open  to  both  companies,  with 
the  proviso  that  neither  should  make  any  settlement  within  one 
hundred  miles  of  the  other.  The  grants  extended  one  hundred 
miles  inland.  The  powers  of  government  bestowed  on  the  new 
companies  were  as  complicated  as  the  grants  of  territory.  Each 
company  was  to  have  a  council  of  thirteen  in  England,  ap 
pointed  by  the  king  and  subject  to  his  control.  This  English 
council  was  to  appoint  another  council  of  thirteen  to  reside  in 
the  colony,  and,  under  the  direction  of  a  president,  to  manage 
its  local  affairs,  subject  always  to  the  English  council,  which  in 
turn  was  subject  to  the  king. 

In  May,  1607,  about  a  hundred  colonists,  sent  out  by  the  33.  The 
London  Company,  reached  the  shores  of  Virginia,  and  sailing  JJjJjSis-* 
some  miles  up  a  broad  river,  started  a  settlement  on  a  low  pen-  town»  I6°7 
insula.   River  and  settlement  they  named  James  and  Jamestown 
in  honor  of  the  king.    The  colony  did  not  thrive.    The  charter 
provided  that  the  harvests  should  be  gathered  into  a  common 
storehouse,  whence  they  were  dispensed  to  the  settlers,  thus  en 
couraging  the  idle  and  shiftless  to  live  at  the  expense  of  the  in 
dustrious.    Authority  was  hard  to  enforce  with  the  clumsy  form 
of  government,  and  the  proprietors  in  England  were  too  far 
away  to  consult  the  needs  of  the  colonists.    Exploring  the  land 
for  gold  and  the  rivers  for  a  passage  to  Cathay  proved  more 
attractive  to  the  settlers  than  planting  corn.    The  unwholesome 
site  of  the  town  caused  fever  and  malaria. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  almost  superhuman  efforts  of  one  34.  j0hn 
man,  John  Smith,  the  little  colony  could  not  have  survived, 
Smith  had  come  to  Virginia  after  a  romantic  and  world-wide  time" 
career  as  a  soldier  of  fortune.    His  masterful  spirit  at  once  as 
sumed  the  direction  of  the  colony  in  spite  of  president  and 
council.    His  courage  and  tact  with  the  Indians  got  corn  for  the 


Of 


are  the  Lines  ihatjfiew  tkyFace't 

-thy  Gr&CC  and  (flo£y»  brighter  te& 
-FowtC  "  Overthrowes 
CivitiizcL  b 

ity  £pirit;atul  iff  it  Glory 
artBrafie  mtiioitt,l>iit  got 


3° 


The  English  Colonies  31 

starving  settlers,  and  his  indomitable  energy  inspired  the  good 
and  cowed  the  lazy  and  the  unjust.  In  his  vivid  narratives  of 
early  Virginia,  the  "  Trewe  Relaycion"  (1608)  and  the  "  Generall 
Historic"  (1-624),  ne  nas  done  himself  and  his  services  to  the 
colony  full  credit,  for  he  was  not  a  modest  or  retiring  man. 
But  his  self-praise  does  not  lessen  the  value  of  his  services.  In 
the  summer  of  1609  he  was  wounded  by  an  explosion  of  gun 
powder,  and  returned  to  England.  The  winter  following  his 
departure  was  the  awful  "  starving  time."  Of  five  hundred  men 
in  the  colony  in  October,  but  sixty  were  left  in  June.  This  feeble 
remnant,  taking  advantage  of  the  arrival  of  ships  from  the  Ber 
mudas,  determined  to  abandon  the  settlement.  With  but  a 
fortnight's  provisions,  which  they  hoped  would  carry  them  to 
Newfoundland,  bidding  final  farewell  to  the  scene  of  their  suf 
fering,  they  dropped  slowly  down  the  broad  James.  But  on 
reaching  the  mouth  of  the  river  they  espied  ships  flying  Eng 
land's  colors.  It  was  the  fleet  of  Lord  de  la  Warre  (Delaware), 
the  new  governor,  bringing  men  and  supplies.  Thus  narrowly  did 
the  Jamestown  colony  escape  the  fate  of  Raleigh's  settlements. 

De  la  Warre  brought  more  than  food  and  recruits.  The  Lon-  35.  The  new 
don  Company  had  been  reorganized  in  1609,  and  a  new  charter  ^rte 
granted  by  the  king,  which  altered  both  the  territory  and  the  gov 
ernment  of  Virginia  (see  map,  p.  28).  Henceforth  a  large  and 
rich  corporation  in  England  was  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  com 
pany,  without  the  intervention  of  the  king.  Virginia  was  to  have 
a  governor  sent  out  by  the  company.  Under  the  new  regime 
the  colony  picked  up.  Order  was  enforced  under  the  harsh  but 
salutary  rule  of  Governor  Dale  (1611-1616).  The  colonists ,  losing 
the  gold  fever,  turned  to  agriculture  and  manufacture.  Tobacco 
became  the  staple  product  of  the  colony,  and  experiments  were' 
made  in  producing  soap,  glass,  silk,  and  wine.  A  better  class  of 
emigrants  came  over,  and  in  1619  a  shipload  of  "respectable 
maidens "  arrived,  who  were  auctioned  off  to  the  bachelor 
planters  for  so  many  pounds  of  tobacco  apiece.  At  the  same 
time  the  sharing  of  harvests  in  common  was  abandoned,  and 


32  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

the  settlers  were  given  their  lands  in  full  ownership.  In  the 
words  of  one  of  the  Virginia  clergy  of  the  period,  "  This  plan 
tation  which  the  Divell  hath  so  often  troden  downe  is  revived 
and  daily  groweth  to  more  and  hopeful  successe." 

36.  The  no-         The  year  1619,  which  brought  the  Virginians  wives  and 
1619.  "Negro     lands,  is  memorable  also  for  two  events  of  great  significance  for 
rSresentative  the  later  nistorv  of  the  colonies  and  the  nation.    In  that  year  the 
government     nrst  cargo  of  negro  slaves  was  brought  to  the  colony,  and  the 

first  representative  assembly  convened  on  American  soil.  On 
July  30  two  burgesses  (citizens)  from  each  plantation  "  met  with 
the  governor  and  his  six  councilors  in  the  little  church  at  James 
town.  This  tiny  legislature  of  twenty-seven  members,  after 
enacting  various  laws  for  the  colony,  adjourned  on  August  4, 
"  by  reason  of  extreme  heat  both  past  and  likely  to  ensue." 
Spanish,  French,  and  Dutch  settlements  existed  in  America 
at  the  time  of  this  first  Virginia  assembly  of  burgesses,  but 
none  of  them  either  then  had  or  copied  later  the  system  of 
representative  government.  Democracy  was  England's  gift  to 
the  New  World. 

37.  King  The  man  to  whom  Virginia  owed  this  great  boon  of  self- 
awayShe  M     government,  and  whose  name  should  be  known  and  honored 

charter  of  the  ^y  everv  American,  was  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  treasurer  of  the 

London  Com-       ' 

pany,  1624       London  Company.    Sandys  belonged  to  the  country  party  in 

Parliament,  who  were  making  James  I's  life  miserable  by  their 
resistance  to  his  arbitrary  government  based  on  "  divine  right," 
or  responsibility  to  God  alone  for  his  royal  acts.  Gondomar, 
the  Spanish  minister  in  London,  whispered  in  James's  ear  that 
assemblies  like  that  in  Virginia  were  "hotbeds -of  sedition." 
But  James  had  let  the  London  Company  get  out  of  his  hands 
by  the  new  charter,  and  when  he  tried  to  interfere  in  their  elec 
tion  of  a  treasurer,  they  rebuked  him  by  choosing  one  of  the 
most  prominent  of  the  country  party  (the  Earl  of  Southampton, 
a  friend  of  Shakespeare's).  Not  being  able  to  dictate  to  the 
company,  James  resolved  to  destroy  it.  In  a  moment  of  great 
depression  for  the  colony,  just  after  a  horrible  Indian  massacre 


The  English  Colonies  33 

(1622)  and  a  famine,  James  commenced  suit  against  the  com 
pany,  which  a  subservient  court  declared  had  overstepped  its 
legal  rights  and  forfeited  its  charter.  James  then  took  the  colony 
into  his  own  hands  and  sent  over  men  to  govern  it  who  were 
responsible  only  to  his  Privy  Council.  Virginia  thus  became  a 
"royal  province"  (1624),  and  remained  so  for  one  hundred 
fifty  years,  until  the  American  Revolution. 

James  intended  to  suppress  the  "  seminary  of  sedition  "  (the  38.  Virginia 
House  of  Burgesses)  too,  and  rule  the  colony  by  a  committee  province, 
of  his  courtiers.    But  he  died  before  he  had  a  chance  to  extin-  I624-X775 
guish  the  liberties  of  Virginia,  and  his  son,  Charles  I,  hoping  to 
get  the  monopoly  of  the  tobacco  trade  in  return  for  the  favor, 
allowed  the  House  of  Burgesses  to  continue.    So  Virginia  fur 
nished  the  pattern  which  sooner  or  later  nearly  all  the  Ameri 
can  colonies  reproduced,  namely,  that  of  a  governor  (with  a 
small  council)  appointed  by  the  English  king,  and  a  legislature, 
or  assembly,  elected  by  the  people  of  the  colony. 

The  people  of  Virginia  were  very  loyal  to  the  Stuarts.  When  39.  Virginia 
the  quarrel  between  king  and  Parliament  in  England  reached  pid  Domin- 
the  stage  of  civil  war  (1642),  and  Charles  I  was  driven  from  lon" 
his  throne  and  beheaded  (1649),  many  of  his  supporters  in  Eng 
land,  who  were  called  Cavaliers,  emigrated  to  Virginia,  giving 
the  colony  a  decidedly  aristocratic  character.  And  when  Charles 
II  was  restored  to  his  father's  throne  in  1660,  the  Virginian  bur 
gesses  recognized  his  authority  so  promptly  and  enthusiastically 
that  he  called  them  "  the  best  of  his  distant  children."  He  even 
elevated  Virginia  to  the  proud  position  of  a  "  dominion,"  by  quar 
tering  its  arms  (the  old  seal  of  the  Virginia  Company)  on  his 
royal  shield  with  the  arms  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland. 
The  burgesses  were  very  proud  of  this  distinction,  and  remem 
bering  that  they  were  the  oldest  as  well  as  the  most  faithful  of 
the  Stuart  settlements  in  America,  adopted  the  name  of  "  The 
Old  Dominion." 

Though  there  were  actually  many  occasions  of  dispute  between  40.  Bacon's 
the  governors  sent  over  by  the  king  and  the  legislature  elected  I676 


34 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


41.  The  sig 
nificance  of 
Bacon's 
Rebellion 


by  the  people,  only  one  incident  of  prime  importance  occurred 
to  disturb  the  peaceful  history  of  the  Old  Dominion  under  its 
royal  masters.  In  1675  the  Susquehannock  Indians  were  harass 
ing  the  upper  settlements  of  the  colony,  and  Governor  Berke 
ley,  who  was  profiting  largely  by  his  private  interest  in  the  fur 
trade,  refused  to  send  a  force  of  militia  to  punish  them.  He  was 
supported  by  an  "  old  and  rotten  "  House  of  Burgesses,  which 
he  had  kept  in  office,  doing  his  bidding,  for  fourteen  years.  A 
young  and  popular  planter  named  Nathaniel  Bacon,  who  had 

seen  one  of  his  overseers 
murdered  by  the  Indians, 
put  himself  at  the  head  of 
three  hundred  volunteers 
and  demanded  an  officer's 
commission  of  Governor 
Berkeley.  Berkeley  re 
fused,  and  Bacon  marched 
against  the  Indians  with 
out  any  commission, utterly 
routing  them  and  saving 
the  colony  from  tomahawk 
and  firebrand.  The  gov 
ernor  proclaimed  Bacon  a 
rebel  and  set  a  price  upon 
his  head.  In  the  distress 
ing  civil  war  which  followed,  the  governor  was  driven  from 
his  capital  and  Jamestown  was  burned  by  the  "rebels."  But 
Bacon  died  of  fever  (or  poison?)  at  the  moment  of  his  victory, 
and  his  party,  being  made  up  only  of  his  personal  following,  fell 
to  pieces.  Berkeley  returned  and  took  grim  vengeance  on  Ba 
con's  supporters  until  the  burgesses  petitioned  him  to  "  spill  no 
more  blood." 

Bacon's  Rebellion,  despite  its  deplorable  features,  did  a  good 
work.  It  showed  that  the  colonists  dared  to  act  for  themselves. 
It  forced  the  dissolution  of  the  "  old  and  rotten  "  assembly  and 


In  Celebration  of  the  Three-Hundredth 

Anniversary  of  the  Settlement  of 

Jamestown 


The  English  Colonies  35 

the  choice  of  a  new  one  representing  the  will  of  the  people.  It 
led  to  the  recall  of  Berkeley  by  Charles  II,  who  explained  indig 
nantly  when  he  heard  of  the  governor's  cruel  reprisals:  "That 
old  fool  has  taken  away  more  lives  in  that  naked  country  than 
I  did  here  for  the  murder  of  my  father."  And,  finally,  it  showed 
that  the  people  of  the  Old  Dominion,  though  loyal  to  their  king, 
had  no  intention  of  submitting  to  an  arbitrary  governor  in  col 
lusion  with  a  corrupt  assembly. 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  SETTLEMENTS 

While  these  things  were  going  on  in  Virginia  a  very  different  42.  Activ- 
history  was  being  enacted  in  the  northern  regions  granted  to  the  Ferdinando 
Plymouth  Company.  This  company  sent  out  a  colony  in  the  very  Gorses 
year  that  the  London  Company  settled  Jamestown  (1607),  but 
one  winter  in  the  little  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec  River, 
on  the  icebound  coast  of  Maine,  was  enough  to  send  the  frozen 
settlers  back  to  England.  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  governor  of 
Plymouth,  was  the  moving  spirit  of  the  company,  and  despite 
his  losses  in  the  expedition  of  1607-1608,  he  showed  a  deter 
mination  worthy  of  a  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  In  1614  he  sent 
John  Smith,  long  since  cured  of  the  wound  caused  by  the  ex 
plosion  of  gunpowder,  to  explore  the  coast  of  "  northern  Vir 
ginia,"  as  the  Plymouth  grant  was  called.  Smith  made  a  map 
of  the  coast  from  Cape  Cod  to  Nova  Scotia,  called  the  land  "  New 
England,"  and  first  set  down  on  the  map  of  America  such  famil 
iar  names  as  Cambridge,  the  Charles  River,  Plymouth,  and  Cape 
Ann.  In  1620  Gorges  persuaded  the  king  to  make  a  new  grant 
of  this  territory  to  a  number  of  nobles  and  gentlemen  about  the 
court,  who  were  designated  as  the  Council  for  New  England. 

A  few  weeks  after  the  formation  of  this  new  company  there  43.  The 
landed  at  Plymouth,  from  the  little  vessel  Mayflower  at  anchor  (Separatists) 

off  Cape  Cod,  a  group  of  one  hundred  men  and  women,  known  la°J  at  Plym" 

outh,  Decem- 
to  later  history  as  the  "  Pilgrims."    They  were  not  sent  by  the  ber  21, 1620 

Council  for  New  England  nor  by  the  London  Company.    Their 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


object  was  neither  to  explore  the  country  for  gold  nor  to  find 
a  northwest  passage  to  the  Indies.  They  came  of  their  own  free 
will  to  found  homes  in  the  wilderness,  where,  unmolested,  they 
might  worship  God  according  to  their  conscience.  They  were 
Independents  or  Separatists,  people  who  had  separated  from  the 
Church  of  England  because  it  retained  in  its  worship  many  fea 
tures,  such  as  vestments,  altars,  and  ceremonies,  which  seemed 
to  them  as  "  idolatrous "  as  the  Roman  Catholic  rites,  which 
England  had  rejected.  Three  centuries  ago  religion  was  an 
affair  of  the  state,  not  alone  of  private  choice.  Rulers  enforced 

uniformity  in  creed  and 
worship,  in  the  belief  that 
it  was  necessary  to  the 
preservation  of  their  au 
thority.  If  a  subject  could 
differ  from  the  king  in 
religious  opinion,  it  was 
feared  that  it  would  not 
be  long  before  he  would 
presume  to  differ  in  po 
litical  opinion,  and  then 
what  would  become  of 


The  Mayflower  in  Plymouth  Harbor 


obedience  and  loyalty  !  For  men  who  were  too  brave  to  conceal 
their  convictions,  and  too  honest  to  modify  them  at  the  command 
of  the  sovereign,  only  three  courses  were  open,  —  to  submit  to 
persecution  and  martyrdom,  to  rise  in  armed  resistance,  or  to  re 
tire  to  a  place  beyond  the  reach  of  the  king's  arm.  The  history 
of  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries  is  full  of 
the  story  of  cruel  persecutions,  civil  wars,  and  exiles  for  con 
science'  sake.  James  I  began  his  reign  by  declaring  that  he 
would  make  his  subjects  conform  in  religion  or  "  harry  them 
out  of  the  land."  He  "  harried  "  the  Separatist  congregations  of 
some  little  villages  in  the  east  of  England,  until  in  1608  they 
took  refuge  in  Holland  —  the  only  country  in  Europe  where 
complete  religious  toleration  existed.  Not  content  to  be  absorbed 


MONUMENT   AT   PROVINCETOWN,    MASS.,    TO    COMMEMORATE 
THE  LANDING  OF  THE  FIRST  PARTY  FROM  THE  MAYFLOWER 


Dedicated  by  President  Taft,  August  8,  1910 


The  English  Colonies 


37 


into  the  Dutch  nation  and  have  their  children  forget  the  cus 
toms  and  speech  of  England,  the  Separatists  determined  to 
migrate  to  the  new  land  of  America.  They  got  permission 
from  the  London  Company  to  settle  in  Virginia  ;  but  their  pilot 
brought  them  to  the  shores  of  Cape  Cod,  where  they  landed 
December  21,  1620,  although  they  had  neither  a  right  to  the 
soil  (a  patent)  nor  power  to  establish  a  government  (a  charter). 

Before  landing,  44.  The 

,        TVI      •  i       "Mayflower 

the    Pilgrims    gath-  compact" 


The  Pilgrim  Tablet  in  Leyden,  Holland 


the  Mayflower  and  at  Plymouth, 

1620-1691 
pledged  themselves 

to  form  a  govern 
ment  and  obey  it. 
That  was  the  first 
instance  of  complete 
self-government  in 
our  history,  for  the 
assembly  which 
met  at  Jamestown 
the  year  before  the 
Pilgrims  landed,  was 
called  together  by 
orders  from  the  Vir 
ginia  Company  in 
England.  The  win 


ter  of  1620-1621  on  the  "  stern  and  rock-bound  coast  "  of  New 
England  went  hard  with  the  Pilgrims.  "  It  pleased  God,"  wrote 
Bradford,  their  governor  for  many  years  and  their  historian, 
"  to  vissite  us  with  death  dayly,  and  with  so  generall  a  disease 
that  the  living  were  scarce  able  to  burie  the  dead."  Yet  when 
the  Mayflower  returned  to  England  in  the  spring  not  one  of 
the  colonists  went  with  her.  Their  home  was  in  America. 
They  had  come  to  conquer  the  wilderness  or  die,  and  their  de 
termination  was  expressed  in  the  brave  words  of  one  of  their 


/r^fiT&tffocc^oK^KJ^&Jvtnt!  tftr-wto*  -Jjenti? 
&+#-'»t<iy:£«/y  -**/<*«&,#-  »m3r/JnWe  Kt^cryrocrte^rjfi 


*"J 
We. 


•;•  Zttnptex^ 


* 


?ttfe.^L&-*-A?*eS,s<>J-}f<>ye7y  -*>&£%  £aa  coiier- 

ftvr$-»H>vf<Ji  ).>*^«/  -w/crr/,  <3  <*f %$*' 
.  •/  ii'^^~     t  •         i .          5 


By  Courtesy  of  The  Burrows  Brothers  Company,  from  Avery's  "  History  of  the  United  State 

Facsimile  of  Bradford  MS.  "  History  of  Plimoth  Plantation  " 
38 


The  English  Colonies  39 

leaders  :  "It  is  not  with  us  as  with  men  whom  small  things 
can  discourage."  The  little  colony  grew  slowly.  It  was  never' 
granted  a  charter  by  the  king,  and  consequently  its  government, 
which  was  carried  on  by  the  democratic  institution  of  the  town 
meeting,  was  never  legal  in  the  eyes  of  the  English  court.  Yet, 
because  of  its  small  size  and  quiet  demeanor,  the  colony  of 
Plymouth  was  allowed  to  continue  undisturbed  by  the  Stuarts. 
It  took  its  part  bravely  in  the  defense  of  the  New  England 
settlements  against  the  Indians,  and  saw  half  its  towns  de 
stroyed  in  the  terrible  war  set  on  foot  by  the  Narragansett  chief 
"King  Philip,"  in  I675-1  Finally,  in  1691,  it  was  annexed  to 
the  powerful  neighboring  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Politi 
cally  the  little  colony  of  Plymouth,  the  "  old  colony,"  was  of 
slight  importance,  but  its  moral  and  religious  influence  on 
New  England  was  great.  The  Pilgrims  demonstrated  that  in 
dustry  and  courage  could  conquer  even  the  inhospitable  soil 
and  climate  of  the  Massachusetts  shore,  and  that  unflinching 
devotion  to  an  ideal  could  make  of  the  wilderness  a  home. 

While  the  settlement  at  Plymouth  was  slowly  growing,  sev-  45.  Charles  I 
eral  attempts  were  made  by  Gorges  and  other  members  of  the 


Council  for  New  England  to  plant  colonies  in  the  New  World.  !,etts  Bay 

Company  , 

About  half  a  hundred  scattered  settlers  were  established  around  March,  1629 
the  shores  and  on  the  islands  of  Boston  harbor,  when  in  1628 
a  company  of  Puritan  gentlemen  secured  a  grant  of  land  from 
the  council  and  began  the  largest  and  most  important  of  the 
English  settlements  in  America,  —  the  colony  of  Massachusetts 
Bay.  The  next  year  they  obtained  from  Charles  I  a  royal 
charter  constituting  them  a  political  body  ruled  by  a  governor,  a 

1  King  Philip's  War  was  only  the  fiercest  of  many  Indian  attacks  on  the 
westward-moving  frontier  of  the  English  settlements  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
We  have  already  noticed  the  attack  of  the  Susquehannocks  on  the  Virginian 
frontier  in  1675-1676  (p.  34).  King  Philip's  War,  of  the  same  years,  in  New 
England  was  crushed  by  a  combination  of  troops  from  the  Massachusetts,  the 
Connecticut,  and  the  Plymouth  colonies,  but  not  until  half  of  the  eighty  or  ninety 
towns  of  those  colonies  had  been  ravaged  by  fire,  some  hundred  thousand  pounds 
sterling  of  their  treasure  spent,  and  one  out  of  every  ten  of  their  fighting  men 
killed  or  captured. 


40  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

deputy  governor,  and  eighteen  "  assistants,"  all  elected  by  the 
members  of  the  company ;  and  in  1630  they  sent  over  to  Mas 
sachusetts  seventeen  ships  with  nearly  a  thousand  colonists. 
John  Endicott  had  established  the  first  settlers  of  the  company 
at  Salem  in  1628,  but  when  the  main  body  of  emigrants  came 
over  with  John  Winthrop  two  years  later,  the  colony  was  trans 
ferred  to  a  narrow  neck  of  land  a  few  miles  to  the  south,  known 


St.  Botolph's  Church,  Boston,  England,  where  John  Cotton  preached 
and  Roger  Williams's  Church  in  Salem,  Massachusetts 

to  the  Indians  as  Shawmut.  The  spot  was  rechristened  Boston, 
after  the  Puritan  fishing  village  in  the  east  of  England,  where 
John  Cotton  was  pastor.  Winthrop  and  Cotton  were  the  lead 
ing  spirits  of  the  colony  in  its  first  twenty  years :  the  former, 
a  cultivated  gentleman  from  the  south  of  England,  serving  almost 
continually  as  governor;  the  latter,  a  scholar  and  preacher  of 
great  power,  acting  as  director  of  the  Massachusetts  conscience. 
The  Puritans,  like  the  Separatists,  protested  against  what 
they  called  "  the  idolatrous  remnants  of  papacy  "  in  the  English 


The  English  Colonies  41 

Church ;  but,  unlike  the  Separatists,  they  believed  in  reforming  46.  The  per- 
the  Church  from  within  rather  than  leaving  its  communion.  the  Puritans 
They  were  for  "  purifying  "  its  worship,  not  rejecting  it ;  or,  in  in  Ensland 
the  theological  language  of  the  day,  they  believed  that  "  the 
seamless  garment  of  Christ  (the  Church)  should  be  cleansed 
but  not  rent."  However,  King  Charles  I,  coming  more  and  more 
under  the  influence  of  men  who  thought  the  only  ecclesiastical 
reform  needed  was  the  extermination  of  independent  opinions 
of  all  sorts,  and  the  lamblike  submission  of  Church,  courts,  and 
parliaments  to  the  royal  will,  made  little  distinction  in  his 
despotic  mind  between  Separatists  and  Puritans.  He  was  as 
glad  to  have  the  latter  out  of  England  as  his  father  had  been 
to  get  rid  of  the  former,  and  lie  granted  the  Massachusetts 
charter  less  as  a  favor  than  as  a  sentence  of  exile.  He  little 
dreamed  that  he  was  laying  the  foundations  of  a  practically 
independent  state  in  his  distant  domain  of  America. 

For  when  in  1629  he  angrily  dismissed  his  Parliament  and  47.  The  Mas- 
entered  on  his  eleven  years'  course  of  despotism,  several  lead-  company^ 
ing  members  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  decided  to  emigrate  takes  its 
to  America  themselves  and  take  their  charter  with  them.    The  America,  1629 
king,  absorbed  in  his  quarrel  with  Parliament,  probably  knew 
nothing  about  the  removal  of  the  charter  from  England  until, 
in  1634,  the  persecuting  zeal  of  Archbishop  Laud  of  Canterbury 
against  the  Puritans  moved  him  to  demand  its  surrender.   The 
English  representatives  of  the  company  politely  informed  the 
king  that  the  charter  was  in  America,  and  the  colony  in  America 
(well  out  of  reach  of  the  king's  officers)  politely  declined  to 
send  the  charter  back  to  England.    Before  the  king  could  use 
force  to  recover  the  charter  he  was  overtaken  by  a  war  with 
his  Scottish  subjects,  and   thus  the   Massachusetts  Company 
escaped  the  fate  which  had  overtaken  the  London  Company's 
colony  of  Virginia  ten  years  earlier. 

The  object  of  the  Massachusetts  settlers  was  to  establish  a  48.  Massa- 

-r,        .  ,  ,  f  r          r  i  f  ChUSCttsaPu- 

Puntan  colony,  and  not  to  open  a  refuge  tor  freedom  of  wor-  ritan  coiony 
ship.    To  keep  their  community  holy  and  undefiled,  they  refused 


42  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

to  admit  as  "  freemen "  (i.e.  participants  in  the  government) 
any  but  members  of  their  own  Church.  Others  might  live  in 
the  colony  so  long  as  they  did  not  resist  the  authorities,  molest 
the  ministers,  or  bring  discredit  on  the  Puritan  system  of  wor 
ship  and  government ;  but  they  had  to  contribute  to  the  support 
of  the  Church,  and  submit  to  its  controlling  oversight  of  both 
public  and  private  life.  During  the  decade  1630-1640  the  grow 
ing  tyranny  of  King  Charles  and  the  persecutions  of  the  zealous 
Archbishop  Laud  drove  about  twenty-five  thousand  refugees  to 
the  new  colony.  A  large  proportion  of  these  emigrants  were 
highly  educated  men  of  sterling  moral  quality.  "  God  sifted  a 
nation,"  wrote  Governor  Stoughton  a  half  century  later,  "  in 
order  that  he  might  send  choice  grain  to  this  wilderness  " ;  but 
Archbishop  Laud,  when  he  drove  out  of  England  the  great 
Puritan  clergymen  who  molded  the  thought  of  the  new  com 
munity  in  America,  had  called  them  "  swine  which  rooted  out 
God's  vineyard." 

49.  conse-  The  large  emigration  to  Massachusetts  brought  about  several 

the'rapid*       important  political  results.    In  the  first  place  it  freed  the  colony 

Puritan  °cfoithe  from  any  fear  of  Indian  attacks.1    Then,  again,  it  enabled  the 

onyofMassa-  authorities  easily  to   drive   out  various   companies  of  settlers 

established  by  the  agents  of  Gorges  and  other  claimants  to  the 

Massachusetts  lands  under  the  grants  of  the  Council  for  New 

England,  —  especially  the  rollicking  followers  of  one  Morton, 

who,  as  the  historian  Bradford  tells  us,  "did  set  up  a  schoole 

of  athisme"  at  Merrymount  (the  site  of  Quincy,  Massachusetts), 

where  "his  men  did  quaff  strong  waters  and  comport  themselves 

as  if  they  had  anew  revived  .  .  .  the  beastly  practises  of  ye 

madd  Bacchanalians";  where  they  set  up  a  maypole  eighty  feet 

high  about  which  they  frolicked  with  the  Indians,  and,  worst  of 

all,  sold  firearms  to  the  redskins  who  "became  madd  after  them 

1  It  must  be  added  that  the  danger  to  both  the  Plymouth  and  the  Massachu 
setts  colonies  in  their  early  years  from  Indian  attacks  was  much  lessened  by  a 
terrible  plague  which  had  swept  over  eastern  New  England  three  years  before 
the  Pilgrims  landed,  and  destroyed  perhaps  one  half  of  the  Indians  from  Maine 
to  Rhode  Island. 


The  English  Colonies  43 

and  would  not  stick  to  give  any  prise  for  them  .  .  .  accounting 
their  bowes  and  arrowes  but  babies  [baubles]  in  comparison  of 
them."  Finally,  the  great  size  of  the  Massachusetts  colony  led 
to  a  representative  form  of  government.  The  freemen  increased 
so  fast  that  they  could  not  meet  in  a  body,  as  at  Plymouth,  to 
make  their  laws  ;  and  after  trying  for  a  short  time  the  experiment 
of  leaving  this  power  to  the  eighteen  "  assistants/'  the  towns 
demanded  the  privilege  of  sending  their  own  elected  representa 
tives  to  help  the  assistants  make  the  laws  (1633).  Still  only 
"  freemen  "  (or  members  of  the  Puritan  churches)  could  vote, 
and  as  the  colony  increased,  an  ever  larger  percentage  of  the 
inhabitants  was  disfranchised.  The  more  liberal  spirits  of  the 
colony  protested  against  this  narrowing  of  the  suffrage,  but  the 
Puritan  leaders  were  firm  in  their  determination  to  keep  out  of 
the  government  all  who  were  suspected  of  heresy  in  belief  or 
laxity  in  morals.  "A  democracy"  (i.e.  the  rule  of  all  the  people) 
"  is  no  fit  government  either  for  Church  or  for  commonwealth," 
declared  Cotton  ;  and  even  the  tolerant  John  Winthrop  defended 
the  exclusive  Puritan  system  in  a  letter  to  a  protesting  friend  by 
the  remark  :  "  The  best  part  is  always  the  least,  and  of  that  best 
part  the  wiser  part  is  always  the  lesser." 

It  was  natural  that  this  "  Puritan  aristocracy,"  which  seemed  50.  Reaction 
so  harsh  to  many  colonists,  should  lead  to  both  voluntary  and  JStan  arfs- 
enforced  exile  from  the  territory  governed  under  the  Massa-  tocracy  in 
chusetts  charter.    Radiating  southward  and  westward,  the  emi-  chusetts 
grants  from  Massachusetts  established  the  colonies  of  Rhode 
Island,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven. 

Roger  Williams,  a  gentle  but  uncompromising  young  man,  51.  Roger 
came  to  the  Massachusetts  Bay  colony  in   1631,  after  taking 
his  degree  at  Pembroke  College,  Cambridge.    He  was  forth-  Island> 
with  elected  pastor  of  the  church  in  Salem,  and  began  to  teach 
doctrines  very  unacceptable  to  the  Puritan  governors  of  the 
colony.    He  said  that  the  land  on  which  they  had  settled  be 
longed  to  the  Indians,  in  spite  of  the  king's  charter,  that  the 
state  had  no  control  over  a  man's  conscience,  and  that  to  make 


44  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

a  man  take  the  oath  of  citizenship  was  to  encourage  lying  and 
hypocrisy.  Williams  was  a  knight-errant  who  refused  to  abandon 
his  crusade  against  the  civil  authorities,  and  they  drove  him 
from  the  colony  in  1636.  Making  his  difficult  way  southward  in 
midwinter,  through  the  forests,  from  one  Indian  tribe  to  another, 
he  arrived  at  the  head  of  Narragansett  Bay,  and  purchasing  a 
tract  of  land  from  the  Indians,  began  a  settlement  which  he 
called,  in  recognition  of  God's  guidance,  Providence. 

Other  dissenters  from  Massachusetts  followed,  and  soon  four 
towns  were  established  on  the  mainland  about  Narragansett 
Bay  and  on  Rhode  Island  proper.  In  1643  Williams  secured 
recognition  for  his  colony  from  the  English  Parliament,  which 
the  year  before  had  driven  King  Charles  from  London.  The 
little  colony  of  "  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations  " 
so  established  was  remarkable  for  two  things,  —  democracy  and 
religious  freedom.  Election  "  by  papers  "  (ballots)  was  intro 
duced,  and  the  government  was  "  held  by  free  and  voluntary 
consent  of  all  the  free  inhabitants."  All  men  might  "  walk  as 
their  conscience  persuaded  them,  every  one  in  the  name  of  his 
God."  The  scornful  orthodox  brethren  in  Massachusetts  called 
Rhode  Island's  population  "  the  Lord's  debris,"  while  the 
facetious  said  that  "  if  a  man  had  lost  his  religion,  he  would  be 
sure  to  find  it  in  some  Rhode  Island  village."  Massachusetts 
further  showed  her  spite  against  the  dissenting  settlers  by  re 
fusing  to  admit  Rhode  Island  into  the  confederation  of  New 
England  colonies,  formed  in  1643  for  protection  against  the  In 
dians  ;  and  it  was  not  till  the  colony  had  received  a  royal  charter 
from  Charles  II  (1663)  that  it  was  securely  established.  For 
his  heroic  devotion  to  principles  of  freedom,  far  in  advance  of 
his  age,  Roger  Williams  deserves  to  be  honored  as  one  of  the 
noblest  figures  in  our  colonial  history. 
52.  connect!-  The  same  year  that  Massachusetts  drove  Williams  out  of  her 
jurisdiction  the  magistrates  gave  permission  to  "  divers  loving 


fh°m  ttaSSa~6  ffriends>  neighbors,  and  ffreemen  of  Newetown  (Cambridge), 
Dorchester,  Watertown  and  other  places,  to  transport  themselves 


The  English  Colonies 


45 


and  their  estates  unto  the  Ryver  of  Conecticott,  there  to  reside 
and  inhabit."  These  emigrants  were  partly  attracted  by  the 
glowing  reports  of  the  fertility  of  the  Connecticut  valley,  and 


Actual  boundaries  determined , __.___- 

Various  boundaries  claimed  by  Massachusetts 


The  New  England  Settlements 

partly  repelled  by  the  extreme  rigor  of  the  Massachusetts  "  aris 
tocracy  of  righteousness,"  which  made  impossible  honest  expres 
sion  of  opinion.  Led  by  their  pastor,  Thomas  Hooker,  they 
tramped  across  the  wilderness  between  the  Charles  and  the 
Connecticut,  driving  their  cattle  before  them  and  carrying  their 
household  goods  in  wagons,  —  the  first  heralds  of  that  mighty 


46 


The  Establishment  of  th 


westward  movement  which  was  to  continue  through  two  centuries 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  -  The  Connecticut  emigrants  founded  the 
towns  of  Hartford,  Windsor,  and  Wethersfield  on  the  "  long 
river."  In  1639  they  adopted  their  "Fundamental  Constitu 
tions,"-— the  first  constitution  drawn  up  in  America,  and  the 
first  in  modern  history  composed  by  the  free  founders  of  a 
state.1  They  did  not  require  a  man  to  be  a  church  member  in 


The  Emigration  to  the  Connecticut  Valley,  1636 

order  to  vote,  and  their  clergymen  exercised  far  less  influence 
over  political  life  than  those  of  the  mother  colony.  Although 
they  had  trouble  with  Massachusetts,  which  still  claimed  that 
they  were  under  her  jurisdiction,  and  with  the  Dutch,  who  (as 
we  shall  see  in  the  next  section)  had  spread  from  the  Hudson 
to  the  Connecticut,  still  the  colonists  of  the  river  towns  were 
strong  enough  to  defend  both  their  land  and  their  government. 

1  The  Mayflower  agreement  of  1620  was  hardly  a  constitution,  as  it  did  not 
provide  for  a  form  of  government,  but  only  pledged  its  signers  to  obey  the 
government  which  they  should  establish. 


The  English  Colonies  47 

After  the  extermination  of  the  dangerous  Pequot  Indians  in  53.  connecti- 
1637  the  colony  flourished  in  secure  and  uneventful  prosperity,  pequot^ar6 
and  remained,  until  the  American  Revolution,  the  least  vexed  of  l637 
of  all  the  English  settlements.    Until  1662   its  existence  was 
not  recognized  by  the  English  government,  but  in  that  year 
Charles  II,  partly,  no  doubt,  to  raise  up  a  powerful  rival  to 
Massachusetts,  which  all  the  Stuarts  hated  for  its  assumption 
of  independent  airs,  granted  a  most  liberal  charter  to  Connect 
icut,  extending  its  territory  westward  to  the  South  Sea  (the 
Pacific).   We  shall  have  occasion,  a  few  pages  later,  to  refer  again 
to  the  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  charters  of  1662-1663. 

A  third  colony,  composed  of  men  who  came  through  rather  54.  ThePuri 
than  out  of  Massachusetts,  was  New  Haven.  John  Davenport,  ^^Haven0* 
a  stern  Puritan  divine,  brought  his  congregation  to  Massachu-  1638-1665 
setts  in  the  summer  of  1637,  when  the  colony  was  in  the  midst 
of  the  pitiless  trial  of  Mistress  Anne  Hutchinson  and  her  asso 
ciates,  who  were  accused  of  teaching  the  heresy  of  antinomian- 
ism,  —  a  thing  hard  for  even  a  trained  theologian  to  understand, 
and  impossible  to  explain  here.  Finding  the  strife-charged  air 
of  Boston  uncongenial,  Davenport  and  his  congregation  pushed 
on  to  the  shores  of  Long  Island  Sound  and  founded  the  settle 
ment  of  New  Haven  (1638).  The  colony,  which  soon  expanded 
into  several  towns,  was  as  strictly  Puritan  and  "  theocratic " 
(God-ruled)  as  Massachusetts.  The  founders  hoped  to  add 
worldly  prosperity  to  their  piety  by  making  New  Haven  a  great 
commercial  port ;  but  the  proximity  of  the  unrivaled  harbor  of 
New  York  (then  called  New  Amsterdam)  rendered  any  such 
hope  vain  from  the  beginning.  Instead  of  becoming  an  inde 
pendent  commercial  colony,  New  Haven  and  her  sister  towns 
found  themselves,  to  their  disgust,  included  in  the  limits  of 
Connecticut  by  the  royal  charter  of  1662.  They  protested 
valiantly  against  the  consolidation,  but  were  forced  in  the  end 
to  yield.  Thus  the  New  Haven  colony  ceased'to  exist  in  1665. 

With  the  process  of  radiation  from  Massachusetts  of  colonies 
to  the  south  and  west  .went  a  contrary  process  of  absorption  by 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


the  settle- 
ments  of 
Gorges  and 


55.  Relations  Massachusetts  of  settlements  to  the  north  and  east.  Ferdinando 
set^with"1"  Gorges  was  the  father  of  these  settlements.  In  spite  of  the 
failure  of  the  Kennebec  Colony  in  1607,  which  "froze  his  hopes 
and  made  him  sit  down  with  his  losses,"  as  he  quaintly  wrote, 
Gorges's  hopes  soon  thawed  out  again,  and  he  labored  till  his 
death,  forty  years  later,  to  establish  colonies  on  the  Maine  coast. 
The  Council  for  New  England  surrendered  its  charter  to  the 
king  in  1635,  but  Gorges  persisted  single-handed.  He  got  a 
charter  in  1639,  which  made  him  proprietor  of  Maine.  He  pro 
ceeded  forthwith  to  establish  an  elaborate  government  for  his 
puny  province,  in  which  almost  every  adult  male  was  an  office 
holder  ;  and  devised  for  his  capital  "  Gorgeana  "  the  first  city 
government  in  America.  Gorges  was  a  deadly  enemy  of  Mas 
sachusetts.  As  a  courtier  he  opposed  the  reforming  party  in 
Parliament,  and  as  a  stanch  Church  of  England  man  he  hated 
the  whole  Puritan  movement.  He  was  one  of  the  foremost 
agitators  for  the  suppression  of  the  Massachusetts  charter  in 
1634,  and  labored  strenuously  to  have  strong  anti-Puritan  set 
tlers  emigrate  to  his  province  of  Maine  and  to  New  Hampshire, 
the  neighboring  province  of  his  fellow  courtier  and  fellow  church 
man  John  Mason.  By  the  terms  of  the  charter  of  1629  the 
territory  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company  extended  from 
three  miles  north  of  the  Merrimac  to  three  miles  south  of  the 
Charles,  and  east  and  west  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 
oceans.  Now  charters  were  granted  by  the  Stuarts  in  reckless 
ignorance  of  the  geography  of  America.  Because  the  Merrimac 
flows  east  as  it  enters  the  sea,  it  was  presumed  that  it  flowed 
east  throughout  its  course  ;  whereas  it  actually  rises  far  to  the 
north,  in  the  lakes  of  New  Hampshire.  A  line  drawn  to  the 
coast,  therefore,  from  a  point  three  miles  north  of  the  source  of 
the  Merrimac  would  include  all  of  the  Maine  and  New  Hamp 
shire  settlements  (see  map,  p.  44).  Massachusetts,  having  ascer 
tained  the  true  course  of  the  river,  laid  claim  to  these  settlements 
as  lying  in  her  territory.  She  annexed  the  New  Hampshire 
towns  in  1641-1643,  and  after  a  long  quarrel  over  the  Maine 


The  English  Colonies  49 

towns,  finally  bought  the  claims  of  Gorges's  heirs  for  £1250 
in  1677.  Charles  II  was  furious  at  the  transaction.  In  1679 
he  separated  New  Hampshire  from  Massachusetts  and  gave  it 
a  royal  governor ;  but  Maine  remained  part  of  the  Bay  Colony 
and  then  of  the  Bay  State  until  1820. 

The  domination  of  Massachusetts  over  the  other  New  Eng-  56.  The 
land  colonies,  at  least  up  to  the  time  when  Connecticut  and  fbsoiutism  in 
Rhode  Island  received  their  charters,  was  complete.  She  far  {^s^tT" 
surpassed  them  all  in  men  and  wealth.  The  New  England  Con-  colony 
federation,  formed  in  1643  by  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  Con 
necticut,  and  New  Haven,  chiefly  for  defense  against  the  Indians, 
was  theoretically  a  league  of  four  equal  states,  each  having  two 
members  with  equal  voice  in  the  governing  council.  But  the 
opposition  of  Massachusetts  kept  Rhode  Island  out  of  the  con 
federation,  and  in  the  question  of  declaring  war  on  the  Dutch 
colony  of  New  Netherland  in  1653  the  two  Massachusetts  coun 
cilors  vetoed  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  other  six.  The  habit  of 
authority  grows  rapidly,  especially  when  exercised  by  strong 
men  who  believe  that  they  are  God's  instruments  in  keeping  the 
faith  and  morals  of  the  community  unsullied.  The  second  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century  exhibited  the  character  of  the  colony 
in  its  most  uncompromising  and  unlovely  aspects.  The  large- 
minded,  courteous  Winthrop  died  in  1649,  an<^  was  succeeded 
in  the  governorship  by  a  harsh  and  bigoted  Puritan  "  saint," 
John  Endicott.  Faithfulness  to  Puritan  ideals  reached  a  point 
of  fanatic  cruelty.  Quakers  were  hanged  in  1660  on  Boston 
Common  for  the  crime  of  testifying  to  the  "  inner  light,"  or 
special  divine  revelation  (which  of  course  made  Church  and 
clergy  superfluous).  Again,  in  1692,  nineteen  persons,  mostly 
women,  were  hanged  in  Salem  village  for  witchcraft,  or  secret 
alliance  with  Satan,  on  the  most  unfair  evidence  of  excited 
children  and  hysterical  women. 

On  its  political  side  the  increasing  power  of  the  magistrates  57.  signs  of 
of  Massachusetts  aroused  the  angry  suspicions  of   the  king.  Jen^encVfoi6" 
The  colony  banished  Episcopalians,  coined  money,  omitted  the  Massachusetts 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


king's  name  in  its  legal  forms,  and  broke  his  laws  for  the 
regulation  of  their  trade.  When  he  sent  commissioners  in  1664 
to  investigate  these  conditions,  they  were  insulted  by  a  con 
stable  in  a  Boston  tavern.  Their  chairman  wrote  back,  "  Our 
time  is  lost  upon  men  puffed  up  with  the  spirit  of  independ 
ence."  Edmond  Ran 
dolph,  sent  over  a  few 
years  later  as  a  collector 
of  revenues,  complained 
that  "  the  king's  letters 
are  of  no  more  account 
in  Massachusetts  than 
an  old  number  of  the 
London  Gazette"^  Fi 
nally,  Charles  II,  pro 
voked  beyond  patience, 
had  the  Massachusetts 
charter  annulled  in  his 
court  (1684),  and  the 
colony  became  a  royal 
province. 

58.  Edmund  But  before  the  great 
Puritan  colony  entered 
on  its  checkered  career 
of  the  eighteenth  century 

under  royal  governors,       The  Puritan  (By  Augustus  St.  Gaudens) 
it  bore   a   conspicuous 

part  in  the  overthrow  of  that  tyranny  which  the  last  Stuart  king, 
James  II,  made  unendurable  for  freeborn  Englishmen.  In  1686 
James  united  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  all  New  England 
into  one  great  province,  which  should  be  a  solid  bulwark  against 
the  danger  of  French  and  Indian  invasion  from  the  north,  and 

1  Randolph  came  at  just  the  moment  when  Massachusetts  was  elated  at  having 
led  the  New  England  colonies  victoriously  through  the  severe  war  with  King 
Philip,  1676  (see  note,  p.  39). 


£Jsdto°n 


The  English  Colonies 


where  his  governor  should  rule  absolutely,  unhampered  by  colo 
nial  charters  or  assemblies.    He  sent  over  Sir  Edmund  Andros 
as  governor  of  this  huge  province  extending  from  Delaware 
Bay  to  Nova  Scotia.    Andros  was  a  faithful  servant,  an  upright 
man,  without  guile  or  trickery,  but  a  harsh,  narrow,  unbending 
governor,  determined  that  the  instructions  of  his  royal  master 
should  be  carried  out  to  the  letter.     In  pursuance  of  these 
instructions  he  attempted  to 
seize   the   charters   of   Con 
necticut  and  Rhode   Island, 
but  was  baffled  by  the  local 
patriots  in  both  colonies.    Ex 
asperated  by  resistance,  An 
dros  made  his  hand  doubly 
heavy  upon    the   Massachu 
setts  colony,  which  the  Stuarts 
rightly  looked  upon  as  the 
stronghold  of  democratic  sen 
timent  in  America.    He  dis 
missed  the  Massachusetts 
Assembly,  abolished  the  colo 
nial  courts,  dispensed  justice 
himself,  charging  exorbitant 
fees,  established  a  strict  cen 
sorship   of  the  press,   intro 
duced  the  Episcopal  worship 

in  Boston,  denied  the  colonists  fair  and  speedy  trials,  and  levied 
a  land  tax  on  them  without  the  consent  of  their  deputies. 

The  patience  of  the  colony  was  about  exhausted  when  the  59.  The 
welcome  news  arrived,  in  April,  1689,  that  James  II  had  been 

driven  from  the  English  throne.    The  inhabitants  of  Boston  l689  in  Mas 
sachusetts 
immediately   responded  by   a  popular  rising  against   James's 

odious  servant.  Andros  tried,  like  his  master,  to  flee  from  the 
vengeance  of  the  people  he  had  so  grievously  provoked,  but  he 
was  seized  and  imprisoned,  and  later  sent  back  to  England. 


Governor  Edmund  Andros 


52  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

The  town  meeting  of  Boston  assumed  the  government,  ap 
pointed  a  committee  of  safety,  and  sent  envoys  to  London  to 
learn  the  will  of  the  new  king,  William  of  Orange.  Thus  the 
"Glorious  Revolution"  of  1689  in  Massachusetts  was  truly  a 
part  of  the  English  Revolution  of  1688,  and  a  foreshadowing 
of  the  greater  Revolution  begun  eighty-six  years  later  by  the 
descendants  of  the  men  who  expelled  Andros  in  defense  of  the 
principles  of  the  men  who  expelled  James  II. 

60.  The  new  King  William  granted  a  new  charter  to  Massachusetts  in 
SsTharter  l69J>  while  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  quietly  resumed 
of  1691  government  under  their  old  charters,  retaining  them  as  state 

constitutions  well  into  the  nineteenth  century.  The  new  Mas 
sachusetts  charter  provided  for  the  union  of  Plymouth  with 
the  Bay  colony  under  a  royal  governor,  and  broke  down  the 
old  Puritan  regime  by  guaranteeing  freedom  of  worship  to  all 
Protestant  sects,  and  making  the  possession  of  property  in 
stead  of  membership  in  the  church  the  basis  of  political  rights. 
Under  this  charter  the  Massachusetts  colony  lived  until  the 
American  Revolution. 


THE  PROPRIETARY  COLONIES 

61.  The  cor-        Virginia  and  Massachusetts  were  corporate  colonies,  founded 

porate  colo-       ,  ...  ,  .        ^  111- 

nies  (founded  by  companies  of  men  (corporations)  to  whom  the  king  gave 

bycompames)  charters,  or  the  right  to  establish  governments  in  certain  speci 
fied  territory  of  America.  We  have  seen  how  the  Virginia 
Company  lost  its  charter  quite  early  in  its  history  (1624),  and 
became  the  first  royal  province,  ruled  by  a  governor  and  coun 
cil  appointed  by  the  king.  We  have  seen  also  how  the  Massa 
chusetts  Company,  by  the  emigration  of  its  leading  members 
with  the  charter  to  America,  became  a  self-governing  colony, 
much  to  the  king's  chagrin.  Finally,  we  have  seen  how  Mas 
sachusetts  sent  out  as  offshoots  the  self-governing  colonies 
of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut,  which  were  recognized  by 
Charles  IPs  charters  of  1662-1663.  All  the  rest  of  the  thirteen 


The  English  Colonies  53 

colonies,  which  were  later  to  unite  to  form  the  American  nation, 
were  founded  as  proprietorships^ 

The  proprietorship  was  a  sort  of  middle  thing  between  the  62.  The 
royal  province  and  the  self-governing  colony.  The  king  let  proprietary  C 
the  reins  of  government  out  of  his  own  hands,  but  did  not  give  Province 
them  into  the  hands  of  the  colonists.  Between  the  king  and 
the  settlers  stood  the  proprietor,  a  man  or  a  small  group  of 
men,  generally  courtiers,  to  whom  the  king  had  granted  the 
province.  In  the  royal  provinces  the  king  himself,  through  his 
Privy  Council,  appointed  governors,  established  courts,  collected 
taxes,  and  attended  to  the  various  details  of  executive  govern 
ment.  In  the  self-governing  colonies  the  people  elected  their 
governors  and  other  executive  officers,  civil  and  military,  and 
controlled  them  through  their  democratic  legislatures.  In  the 
proprietary  provinces  the  lords  proprietors  appointed  the  gov 
ernors,  established  courts,  collected  a  land  tax  (quitrent)  from 
the  inhabitants,  offered  bonuses  to  settlers,  and  in  general  man 
aged  their  provinces  like  farms  or  any  other  business  venture, 
subject  always  to  the  limitations  imposed  by  the  terms  of  their 
charter  from  the  king,  and  the  opposition  of  their  legislatures 
in  the  colonies.2 

The  only  enduring  proprietorship  established  under  the  early  63.  Mary- 
Stuarts  was  Maryland.  In  1632  George  Calvert  (Lord  Balti-  byCaivert 
more),  a  Roman  Catholic  nobleman  high  in  the  favor  of  the 
court,  obtained  from  Charles  I  the- territory  between  the  Poto 
mac  River  and  the  fortieth  parallel  of  latitude,  with  a  very  lib 
eral  charter.  The  colonists  and  their  children  were  to  "  enjoy 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  native-born  Englishmen "  ;  no  tax 

1  The  proprietorship  was  not  only  the  commonest  form  of  colonial  grant,  but 
it  was  also  the  earliest.    Queen  Elizabeth's  patents  to  Gilbert  and  Raleigh  were 
of  this  nature,  and  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  there  were  many 
attempts  of  proprietors,  less  heroically  persistent  than  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges, 
to 'found  colonies  on  our  shores. 

2  All  the  proprietors  except  the  Duke  of  York,  King  Charles  IPs  brother, 
granted  their  provinces  colonial  assemblies  elected  by  the  people.   They  could 
not,  in  fact,  get  settlers  on  any  other  terms.    In  the  royal  provinces,  too,  the 
popularly  elected  assemblies  were  retained. 


Proprietary  Grants  made  by  the  Stuart  Kings 

Showing  how  seven  eighths  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  was  granted  to  court 
favorites  between  1630  and  1680 

54 


The  English  Colonies  55 

or  custom  was  to  be  imposed  on  them  by  the  English  king  or 
Parliament ;  their  laws  were  to  be  made  "  by  the  proprietor 
and  the  freemen  of  the  colony."  George  Calvert  died  before 
the  king's  great  seal  was  affixed  to  the  charter,  but  his  son, 
Cecilius  Calvert,  sent  a  colony  in  1634  to  St.  Marys,  on  the 
shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay. 

The  second  Lord  Baltimore  was  a  man  of  consummate  tact,  64.  Trials  of 
broad  and  generous  in  his  views,  unflagging  in  devotion  to  his  tors Pof  ^Mary- 
colony.  He  needed  all  his  tact,  nobility,  and  courage  to  meet  land 
the  difficulties  with  which  he  had  to  struggle.  In  the  first  place, 
the  smiling  tract  of  land  granted  to  him  by  King  Charles  lay 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  grant  of  King  James  to  the  Vir 
ginia  Company  (see  map,  p.  28).  A  Virginian  fur  trader  named 
Claiborne  was  already  established  on  Kent  Island  in  Chesapeake 
Bay,  and  refused  either  to  retire  or  to  give  allegiance  to  the 
Catholic  Lord  Baltimore.  It  came  to  war  with  the  Virginian 
Protestants  before  Claiborne  was  dislodged.  Again,  Lord  Balti 
more  interpreted  the  words  of  the  charter,  that  laws  were  to  be 
made  "  by  the  proprietor  and  freemen  of  the  colony,"  to  mean 
that  the  proprietor  was  to  frame  the  laws  and  the  freeman  accept 
them  ;  but  the  very  first  assembly  of  Maryland  took  the  oppo 
site  view,  insisting  that  the  proprietor  had  only  the  right  of 
approving  or  vetoing  laws  which  they  had  passed.  Baltimore 
tactfully  yielded. 

But  it  was  religious  strife  that  distracted  the  colony  most  65.  The  Toi- 
sorely  and  plunged  it  again  and  again  into  civil  war.  Lord  Balti-  i^100 
more  had  founded  his  colony  partly  as  an  asylum  for  the  per 
secuted  Roman  Catholics  of  England  who  were  regarded  as 
idolaters  by  both  the  New  England  Puritans  and  the  Virginia 
Episcopalians.  To  have  Mass  celebrated  at  St.  Marys  was,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  intolerant  Protestants,  to  pollute  the  soil  of 
America.  As  Baltimore  tolerated  all  Christian  sects  in  his  prov 
ince,  the  Protestants  simply  flooded  out  the  Catholics  of  Mary 
land  by  immigration  from  Virginia,  New  England,  and  old 
England.  Eight  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  colony 


56  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

the  Catholics  formed  less  than  25  per  cent  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  in  1649  the  proprietor  was  obliged  to  protect  his  fellow 
religionists  in  Maryland  by  getting  the  assembly  to  pass  the 
famous  Toleration  Act,  providing  that  "  no  person  in  this  prov 
ince  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  shall  be  in  any  ways 
troubled,  molested,  or  discountenanced  for  his  or  her  religion 
...  so  that  they  be  not  unfaithful  to  the  lord  proprietary  or 
molest  or  conspire  against  the  civil  government  established." 
Although  this  is  the  first  act  of  religious  toleration  on  the 

A       L   A   W 

MAR  Y°L  AND 

Concerning 

RELIGION. 

JOwfuuch  as  in  awell-gomned  and  Chnftian  Commonw ealth,  Matters  concerning  Religion  and  the  Honogr  of  God  ought  to  be  in  the  firft- 
pla  e  tnbetakenintoTcrious  confutation,  and  endeavoured  to  be  fettled.  Be  it  therefore  Ordained  and  Eoafted  by  thellight  Honourable 
C^KC  fLIUS  Lord  Baron  of  £*/««;«,  abfolute  Lord  and  Proprietary  of  this  Province,  with  t!ie.Advice  and  Content  of  the  Upper  and 
Lower  Houle  ofthu  General  Aflembly,  That  whatfoever  pcrfon  or  perfons  within  this  Province  and  the  Iflandi  thereunto  belonging,  (hall 
fro.n  henceforth  blafpheme  GOD,  that  iscurfe  him;  or  (hall  deny  our  Saviour  JESUS  CHR.1ST  to  be  tho  Son  of  God;  orfhalldeny 
the  Holy  Trinity,  the  Father,  Son,  &  Holy  Ghoft;  or  the  Godhead  of  any  of  the  faidThreePerfons  of  the  Trinity  ,or  the  Unity  of  theGodhead,. 
or  (hall  ufeor  utter  any  reproachful  ipceches,  words,  or  language,  concerning  the  Huly  Trinity,  or  any  of  the  faid  three  Perfom  thereof,  (hall  be  pu- 
nithtd  with  death,  and  confifcation  or  forfcitute  of  allhisorherLandsand  Goods  to  the  Lord  Proprietary  and  hi)  Heirs. 

And  be  it  alfo  enaftcd  by  the  Authority,  and  with  the  advice  and  aflent  aforefaid.That  whatloeter  perfon  orperfons  (hall  from  Henceforth  ufc  or  utter 
any  reproachful  words  or  fpecahes  concerning  the  bleffed  Virgin  MARr,iht  Mother  of  our  Saviour,  or  the  holy  Apofllet  or  Eirangelifts,  or  any  of  tnemr 
(hall  in  fuch  cafe  for  the  firft  Offence  forfeit  to  the  faid  Lord  Proprietary  and  hit  Heirs,  Urds  and  Proprietaries  of  this  Province,  the  Turn  of  Five  pounds 
Sterling.or  the  value  thereof  to  be  levied  on  the  goods  and  chattels  of  every  fuch  pcrfon  fo  offending;  but  in  cafe  fuch  offender  or  offenders  fhall  not  then 
havegoodsand  chattels  fiifficieot  for  the  fatisfymgoffuch  forfeiture,  otthat  the  lame  be  nwotherw.fcfpeedily  &tis6ed,thatthenfuch offender  or  offcnd- 


(hall  in  fuch  cafe  for  the  firft  Offence  forfeit  to  the  faid  Lord  Proprietary  and  hit  Heirs,  I-ordi  and  Proprietaries  of  this  Province,  the  Turn  of  Five  pounds 
Sterling.or  the  value  thereof  to  be  levied  on  the  goods  and  chattels  of  every  fuch  perfon  fo  offending-  but  in  cafe  fuch  offender  or  offenders  (hall  not  then 
ha  vegoodsand  chattels  fufficient  for  the  fatisfymgoffuch  forfeiture,  orthat  the  fame  be  nototherwifcfpeedily  fitisBed.thatthenfuch  offender  or  offend 
ers  fhall  be  publicklywhipt,  and  be  impnfoncdduringtlicpieafurcof  the  Lord  Proprietary,  or  the  Lieutenant  or  Chief  Governor  of  this  Province  for  the 
time  being :  And  that  every  fuch  offender  and,offendcrs  forevery  fccond  offinoc  (hail  forfeit  Ten  Pounds  Sterling,  or  the  value  thereof  to  be  levied  as  afore- 
raid;  or  in  cafe  fuch  offender  or  offenders  (hall  not  then  have  goods  and  chattels  within  this  Province  fufficieot  for  that  purpofe,  then  to  be  publickly  an* 
feyerely  whipt  and I  imprifooed  as  before  is  cxpreflcd;  and  that  every  perfon  or  perfons  before  mentioned,  offending  herein  the  third  time,  (hall  for  fuch- 
third  offence,  forfeit  all  his  lands  andgoods,  and  be  for  ever  banifht  and  expelled  out  of  this  Province. 

Facsimile  of  the  Maryland  Toleration  Act  of  1649 

statute  books  of  the  American  colonies,  we  should  remember 
that  Roger  Williams,  thirteen  years  earlier,  had  founded  Rhode 
Island  on  principles  of  religious  toleration  more  complete  than 
those  of  the  Maryland  Act ;  for  by  the  italicized  words  of  the 
latter,  Jews  or  freethinkers  would  be  excluded  from  Lord  Balti 
more's  domain.  By  1658  the  fierce  strife  between  Catholic  and 
Protestant  had  been  allayed,  and  Maryland  settled  down  to  a 
peaceful  and  prosperous  development.  The  tremendous  wave 
of  anti-Catholic  sentiment  that  followed  the  overthrow  of  the 
Stuarts  (1689)  swept  the  Baltimores  out  of  their  proprietorship  ; 
but  on  the  conversion  of  the  family  to  Protestantism  in  1715, 


The  English  Colonies  57 

the  province  of  Maryland  was  restored  to  them  and  remained 
under  their  rule  until  the  American  Revolution. 

During  the  first  five  years  of  his  reign  (1660-1665)  Charles  II  66.  interest 
was  much  occupied  with  the  American  colonies.  We  have  already  stuarts inthe 
seen  how  the  charters  of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  were  colomes 
granted  in  1662-1663,  and  we  shall  see  in  the  next  section  how 
busily  the  king  regulated  colonial  trade  in  1660-1663.     The 
years  1663-1665  saw  the  establishment  of  three  new  English 
colonies  in  America,  —  Carolina,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey. 

In  1663  Charles  II  granted  to  a  group  of  eight  noblemen  67.  The  set- 
about  his  court  the  huge  tract  of  land  between  Virginia  and  history  of  the 
the  Spanish  settlement  of  Florida,  extending  westward  to  the 
"  South  Sea  "  (Pacific  Ocean).  The  charter  gave  the  proprie 
tors  power  to  make  laws,  "  with  the  assent,  advice,  and  appro 
bation  of  the  freemen  of  the  colony,"  to  grant  lands,  collect 
duties  and  quitrents,  establish  courts,  appoint  magistrates,  erect 
forts,  found  cities,  make  war,  and  allow  the  settlers  "  such  in 
dulgences  and  dispensations  in  religious  affairs  as  they  should 
think  proper  and  reasonable,"  —  powers  as  ample  as  Lord  Balti 
more's  in  Maryland.  But  the  board  of  proprietors  were  not 
equal  to  Lord  Baltimore  in  tact,  energy,  and  devotion  to  the 
interests  of  the  colony.  Too  many  cooks  spoiled  the  broth.  The 
initial  mistake  was  the  attempt  to  enforce  a  ridiculously  elab 
orate  constitution,  the  "  Grand  Model,"  composed  for  the  occa 
sion  by  the  celebrated  English  philosopher  John  Locke,  and 
utterly  unfit  for  a  sparse  and  struggling  settlement.  A  community 
grew  up  on  the  Chowan  River  (1670),  founded  by  some  mal 
contents  from  Virginia,  and  another  on  the  shore  of  the  Ashley 
River,  three  hundred  miles  to  the  south.  The  latter  settlement 
was  transferred  ten  years  later  (1680)  to  the  site  of  the  modern 
city  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  These  two  widely  separated 
settlements  developed  gradually  into  North  and  South  Carolina 
respectively.  The  names  are  used  as  early  as  1691,  but  the 
colony  was  not  officially  divided  and  provided  with  separate  gov 
ernors  until  1711.  There  is  little  in  the  history  of  the  Carolinas 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


X 


to  detain  us.  It  is  a  story  of  inefficient  government,  of  wrang 
ling  and  discord  between  people  and  governors,  governors  and 
proprietors,  proprietors  and  king.  North  Carolina  has  been  de 
scribed  as  "  a  sanctuary  of  runaways,"  where  "  every  one  did 
what  was  right  in  his  own  eyes,  paying  tribute  neither  to  God 
nor  to  Ccesar."1  The  Spaniards  incited  the  Indians  to  attack 
the  colony  from  the  south,  and  pirates  swarmed  in  the  harbors 
and  creeks  of  the  coast.  Finally,  the  assembly  of  South  Carolina, 

burdened  by  an  enormous 
debt  from  the  Spanish- 
Indian  wars,  offered  the 
lands  of  the  province  for 
sale  to  settlers  on  its  own 
terms.  The  proprietors 
vetoed  this  action,  which 
invaded  their  chartered 
rights.  Then  the  assembly 
renounced  obedience  to  the 
proprietor's  magistrates, 
and  petitioned  King 
George  I  to  be  taken  under 
his  protection  as  a  royal 

province  (1710).    It  was 
Henry  Hudson's  Vessel,  the  Half  Moon,     .  .  , 

in  the  Hudson  the  only  Case  m  Our  Col°- 

nial  history  of  a  proprietary 

government  overthrown  by  its  own  assembly.  Ten  years  later 
(1729)  the  proprietors  sold  their  rights  and  interests  in  both 
Carolinas  to  the  crown  for  the  paltry  sum  of  ^5  0,000.  So  two 
more  colonies  were  added  to  the  growing  list  of  royal  provinces. 
While  the  Carolina  proprietors  were  inviting  settlers  to  their 
new  domain,  an  English  fleet  sent  out  by  Charles  II 's  brother, 
the  Duke  of  York,  sailed  into  New  York  harbor  and  demanded 

1  William  Byrd,  a  brilliant  Virginian  writer,  described  the  lawless  state  of 
North  Carolina  in  1720  in  the  following  catchy  Latin  couplet: 

De  tributo  Caesaris  nemo  cogitabat, 
Omnes  erant  Caesares,  nemo  censum  dabat. 


The  English  Colonies  59 

the  surrender  of  the  feebly  garrisoned  Dutch  fort  on  Manhat-  68.  The 
tan  Island  (September,  1664).    The  fort  was  commanded  by 


Peter  Stuyvesant,  director  general  of  the  Dutch  colony  of  New  Netheriand, 

Netherland.    About  a  hundred  years  earlier  the  Dutch,  driven 

from  their  peaceful  pursuits  of  farming  and  cheese-making  by  a 

long  and  cruel  war  with  Spain,  had  taken  to  the  sea  and  laid  the 

foundations  of  that  colonial  empire  which  is  to-day  the  chief 

wealth  and  pride  of  their  little  kingdom.     Seeking  to  cripple 

Spain  at  all  points,  they  had  sent  their  ships  east  and  west,  to 

seize  the  enemy's  treasure  fleets,  to  establish  forts  and  trading 

posts,  and  to  find  the  northern  passage  to  the  Indies.    Thus  in 

the  early  autumn  of  1609  Henry  Hudson,  an  Englishman  in 

the  service  of  Holland,  sailed  into  the  spacious  harbor  of  New 

York  and  up  the  majestic  river  which  now  bears  his  name. 

About  five  years  later  the  Dutch  established  fortified  trading 

posts  on  Manhattan  Island  and  a  few  miles  below  the  present 

city  of  Albany,  and  in  1621  the  territory  on  the  Hudson  was 

granted  by  the  States-General  (Parliament)  of  Holland  to  the 

Dutch  West  India  Company. 

The  company  did  not  make  a  success  of  the  colony,  although  69.  The  ill 
it  offered  tracts  of  land  miles  deep  along  both  sides  of  the  river  JJitch^oiony6 
to  rich  proprietors  ("  patroons  "),  with  feudal  privileges  of  trade  onthe  Hudson 
and  government,  and  in  1638  abolished  all  monopolies,  opening 
trade  and  settlement  to  all  nations,  and  making  liberal  offers  of 
land,  stock,  and  implements  to  tempt  farmers.  Even  the  city 
of  New  Amsterdam  (New  York),  with  its  magnificent  situation 
for  commerce,  reached  a  population  of  only  sixteen  hundred  dur 
ing  the  half  century  that  it  was  under  Dutch  rule.  The  West 
India  Company,  intent  on  the  profits  of  the  fur  trade  with  the 
Indians  of  central  New  York,  would  not  spend  the  money  neces 
sary  for  the  development  and  defense  of  the  colony.  They  sent 
over  director  generals  who  had  little  concern  for  the  welfare  of 
the  people,  and  refused  to  allow  any  popular  assembly.  If  the 
settlers  protested  that  they  wanted  a  government  like  New  Eng 
land's,  "  where  neither  patroons,  lords,  nor  princes  were  known, 


60  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

but  only  the  people,"  they  were  met  with  the  insulting  threat 
of  being  "hanged  on  the  tallest  tree  in  the  land."  Furthermore, 
the  .Dutch  magistrates  were  continually  involved  in  territorial 
quarrels.  They  had  settled  on  the  land  granted  by  James  I  in 
1606  to  the  London  and  Plymouth  companies,  and  had  been 
immediately  warned  by  them  to  leave  it.  They  replied  humbly 
at  first  that  they  "  had  found  no  English  there,"  and  "  hoped 
they  were  not  trespassing,"  but  later  they  assumed  a  defiant 
tone.  They  disputed  the  right  to  the  Connecticut  valley  with 
the  emigrants  from  Massachusetts,  and  claimed  the  land  along 
the  lower  banks  of  the  South  River  (the  Delaware),  from  which 
they  had  driven  out  some  Swedish  settlers  by  force,1  although 
the  land  lay  plainly  within  the  boundaries  of  Lord  Baltimore's 
charter.  In  1653,  when  England  was  at  war  with  Holland,  New 
Netherland  was  saved  from  the  attack  of  the  New  England  colo 
nies  only  by  the  selfish  veto  of  Massachusetts  on  the  unanimous 
vote  of  the  other  members  of  the  Confederation  of  New  England, 
hsh  seizfthe  EverY  vear  tne  English  realized  more  clearly  the  necessity  of 
Dutch  colony,  getting  rid  of  this  alien  colony,  which  lay  like  a  wedge  between 
Amsterdam  New  England  and  the  Southern  plantations,  controlling  the 
becomes  New  va]uabie  route  of  fae  Hudson  and  making  the  enforcement  of 
the  trade  laws  in  America  impossible.  In  1664,  therefore, 
Charles  II,  on  the  verge  of  a  commercial  war  with  Holland, 
granted  to  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  the  territory  between 
the  Connecticut  and  Delaware  rivers  as  a  proprietary  province. 
The  first  the  astonished  burghers  of  New  Amsterdam  knew  of 
this  transaction  was  the  appearance  of  the  duke's  fleet  in  the 
harbor,  with  the  curt  summons  to  surrender  the  -fort.  Director 
General  Stuyvesant,  the  "  valiant,  weather-beaten,  mettlesome, 
obstinate,  leather-sided,  lion-hearted  old  governor,"  as  Diedrich 

1  Although  without  the  shadow  of  a  claim  by  discovery  and  exploration,  the 
Swedish  court  imitated  those  of  England,  France,  and  Holland  by  giving  to  its 
subjects'  charters  to  establish  settlements  on  the  shores  of  the  New  World.  Be 
tween  1638  and  1647  five  or  six  Swedish  trading  posts  were  set  up  along  the 
banks  of  the  Delaware  River,  near  its  mouth,  but  the  home  government  made  no 
provision  for  their  defense  and  they  were  easily  captured  by  the  Dutch  in  1655. 


The  English  Colonies  6 1 

Knickerbocker  calls  him,  fumed  and  stormed,  declaring  that  he 
would  never  surrender.  But  resistance  was  hopeless.  The  burgh 
ers  persuaded  the  irate  governor  to  yield,  although  his  gunners 
had  their  fuses  lighted.  New  Netherland  fell  without  a  blow, 
and  the  English  flag  waved  over  an  unbroken  coast  from  Canada 
to  Carolina. 

There  are  still  many  traces  in  New  York  of  its  fifty  years'  71.  what  the 
occupancy  by  the  Dutch.  The  names  of  the  old  Knickerbocker  queathea  to 
families  remind  us  of  the  patroons'  estates ;  and  from  the  car  New  York 
windows  one  gets  glimpses  of  the  high  Dutch  stoops  and  quaint 
market  places  in  the  villages  along  the  Hudson,  or  sees  a  group 
of  men  at  sundown  still  rolling  the  favorite  old  Dutch  game  of 
bowls,  which  Rip  van  Winkle  found  the  dwarfs  playing  in  the 
Catskills.  But  a  far  more  significant  bequest  of  New  Nether- 
land  to  New  York  was  the  spirit  of  absolute  government.  Under 
the  Dutch  rule  the  people  were  without  charter  or  popular  as 
sembly,  and  the  new  English  proprietor  was  content  to  keep 
things  as  they  were,  publishing  his  own  code  of  laws  for  the 
province  (the  "Duke's  Laws").  It  was  not  till  1683  that  he 
yielded  to  pressure  from  his  own  colony  and  the  neighbors  in 
New  England  and  Pennsylvania,  and  granted  an  assembly.  Two 
years  later,  on  coming  to  the  throne  as  James  II,  he  revoked 
this  grant  and  made  New  York  the  pattern  of  absolute  govern 
ment  to  which  he  tried  to  make  all  the  English  colonies  north 
of  Maryland  conform.  What  success  his  viceroy  Andros  had  in 
Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut  we  have  already 
seen  (p.  51).  In  New  York  the  deputy-governor,  Nicholson, 
deserted  his  post  and  sailed  back  to  England.1  When  the  new 

1  The  "  revolution  "  in  New  York  was  headed  by  a  fanatical  demagogue,  a 
German  merchant  named  Jacob  Leisler,  who  appropriated  to  himself  the  author 
ity  laid  down  by  Nicholson,  and  refused  to  surrender  the  fort  on  the  Battery 
to  King  William's  accredited  agent  before  the  arrival  of  the  new  governor.  For 
this  obstinate  conduct  Leisler  was  hanged  as  a  traitor,  although  he  protested  that 
his  only  purpose  in  holding  the  reins  of  power  was  to  prevent  the  Catholics  in 
the  colony  from  getting  control  of  the  government  and  betraying  it  to  the  French 
in  Canada.  He  had  done  nothing  more  "  treasonable  "  than  had  the  leaders  of 
the  "  glorious  Revolution  "  in  Massachusetts. 


62  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

governor  sent  by  King  William  III  arrived  in  1691,  he  brought 
orders  to  restore  the  popular  assembly  which  James  II  had  sup 
pressed,  and  from  that  time  on  the  colony  enjoyed  the  privilege 
of  self-government. 

New  York  grew  slowly.  At  the  time  of  the  foundation  of 
our  national  government  it  was  only  one  of  the  "  small  states  " 
as  compared  with  Massachusetts,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania. 


The  Battery,  New  York,  at  the  End  of  the  Seventeenth  Century 

The  immense  Empire  State  of  to-day,  with  its  nine  million 
inhabitants,  is  the  growth  of  the  last  three  generations.  It  be 
gan  when  the  Erie  Canal,  and  later  the  New  York  Central  Rail 
road,  made  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk  valleys  the  main  highway 
to  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  growing  West. 

72.  The  set-        Even  before  the  Duke  of  York  had  ousted  the  Dutch  magis- 

tlement  and  <•  i  •  i 

history  of  the  trates  from  his  new  province,  he  granted  the  lower  part  of  it, 

jerseys  from  the  Hudson  to  the  Delaware,  to  two  of  his  friends,  who 

were  also  members  of  the  Carolina  board  of  proprietors,  Lord 
Berkeley,  brother  of  the  irritable  governor  of  Virginia,  and  Sir 


The  English  Colonies  6 


George  Carteret,  formerly  governor  of  the  island  of  Jersey  in 
the  English  Channel.  In  honor  of  Carteret  the  region  was  named 
New  Jersey  (June,  1664).  The  proprietors  of  New  Jersey  im 
mediately  published  "  concessions  "  for  their  colony,  —  a  liberal 
constitution  granting  full  religious  liberty  and  a  popular  assem 
bly  with  control  of  taxation.  In  1674  the  proprietors  divided 
their  province  into  East  and  West  Jersey,  and  from  that  date  to 
the  end  of  the  century  the  Jerseys  had  a  turbulent  history,  de 
spite  the  fact  that  both  parts  of  the  colony,  after  various  trans 
fers  of  proprietorship,  came  under  the  control  of  the  peace-loving 
sect  of  Friends,  or  Quakers.1  There  were  constant  quarrels  be 
tween  proprietors  and  governors,  between  governors  and  legis 
latures,  until  New  Jersey  revolted,  with  the  rest  of  the  American 
colonies,  from  the  rule  of  Great  Britain. 

One  of  the  Quaker  proprietors  of  West  Jersey  in  the  early  73.  William 
days  was  William  Penn,  a  young  man  high  in  the  favor  of  the  pennsyi- 
Duke  of  York  and  his  royal  brother  Charles,  on  account  of  the  vania'  I68x 
services  of  his  father,  Admiral  Penn,  to  the  Stuart  cause.    When 
the  old  admiral  died  he  left  a  claim  for  some  sixteen  thousand 
pounds  against  King  Charles  II,  and  William  Penn,  attracted 
by  the  idea  of  a  Quaker  settlement  in  the  New  World,  asked 
the  king  for  a  tract  of  land  in  payment  of  the  debt.    He  was 
granted  an  immense  region  west  of  the  Delaware  River,  which 
he  named  "Sylvania"  (woodland),  but  which  the  king,  in  honor, 
he  said,  of  the  admiral,  insisted  on  calling  Pennsylvania  (i68i).2 

1  The  Friends,  or  Quakers,  were  a  religious  sect  founded  in  England  by 
George  Fox  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.    They  believed  that  the 
"  inner  light,"  or  the  illumination  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  each  man's  conscience, 
was  a  sufficient  guide  for  conduct  and  worship.  They  were  extreme  M  democrats," 
refusing  to  remove  their  hats  in  the  presence  of  any  magistrate.   The  Quakers 
had  begun  to  come  to  America  as  early  as  1653  to  preach  their  doctrines  of  reli 
gious  and  political  independence.    We  have  already  seen  how  cruelly  they  were 
persecuted  by  the  Puritan  authorities  of  Massachusetts  (p.  49).    In  every  colony 
except  Rhode  Island  they  were  oppressed,  until  William  Penn  realized  the  dream 
of  their  founder  and  established  a  Quaker  colony  in  the  New  World. 

2  According  to  the  charter  Penn's  grant  was  bounded  on  the  south  "  by  a  circle 
drawne  at  twelve  miles  distant  from  Newcastle,  Northward  and  Westward  unto 
the  beginning  of  the  4oth  degree  of  Northern  latitude."   This  confusing  language 
is  made  all  the  more  unintelligible  by  the  fact  that  a  circle  drawn  at  a  radius  distance 


64  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

Charles  II  was  in  the  midst  of  his  quarrel  with  the  stiff-necked 
colony  of  Massachusetts,  and  was  no  longer  willing  to  grant  pro 
prietors  the  almost  unlimited  powers  which  he  had  granted  to 
Lord  Baltimore  and  the  Duke  of  York.  The  Penn  charter  con 
tained  provisions  that  the  colony  must  always  keep  an  agent 
in  London,  that  the  Church  of  England  must  be  tolerated,  that 
the  king  might  veto  any  act  of  the  assembly  within  five  years 
after  its  passage,  and  that  the  English  Parliament  should  have 
the  right  to  tax  the  colony. 

74.  The  pros-  Penn  offered  attractive  terms  to  settlers.  Land  was  sold  at 
Penn^s°coiony  ten  dollars  the  hundred  acres,  complete  religious  freedom  was 
allowed,  a  democratic  assembly  was  summoned,  and  the  Indians 
(Delawares),  already  humbled  by  their  northern  foes,  the  Iro- 
quois,  were  rendered  still  less  dangerous  by  Penn's  fair  dealing 
with  them.  Emigrants  came  in  great  numbers,  especially  the 
Protestants  from  the  north  of  Ireland,  who  were  annoyed  by 
cruel  landlords  and  oppressive  trade  laws ;  and  the  German 
Protestants  of  the  Rhine  country,1  against  whom  Louis  XIV  of 
France  was  waging  a  crusade.  In  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  population  of  Pennsylvania  grew  from  twenty 
thousand  to  two  hundred  thousand.  Philadelphia,  the  "  city  of 
brotherly  love,"  which  Penn  had  planned  in  1683  "  to  resemble 
a  green  and  open  country  town,"  soon  outstripped  New  York 
in  population,  wealth,  and  culture,  and  remained  throughout  the 
eighteenth  century  the  leading  city  in  the  American  colonies.  Its 
neat  brick  houses,  its  paved  and  lighted  streets,  its  printing 
presses,  schools,  hospital  and  asylum,  its  library  (1731),  philo 
sophical  society  (1743),  and  university  (1749)  all  testified  to  the 
enlightenment  and  humanity  of  Penn's  colony,  and  especially 

of  twelve  miles  from  Newcastle  does  not  touch  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude. 
Lord  Baltimore's  charter  of  1632  gave  him  all  the  land  "which  lyeth  under  the 
4oth  degree."  The  heirs  of  Penn  and  Baltimore  quarreled  over  the  boundary 
line  for  two  full  generations.  Finally,  in  1764-1767,  two  English  surveyors,  Mason 
and  Dixon,  ran  the  present  boundary  line  (at  39°  43'  26"),  which  was  accepted 
by  both  proprietors.  For  the  disputed  territory  see  map,  p.  54. 
1  The  ancestors  of  the  "  Pennsylvania  Dutch." 


The  English  Colonies 


to  the  genius  and  industry  of  its  leading  citizen,  the  celebrated 
Benjamin  Franklin  (1706-1790). 

William  Penn  was  the  greatest  of  the  founders  of  the  Ameri-  75.  character 
can  colonies.    He  had  all  the  liberality  of  Roger  Williams  with-  Penn 
out  his  impetuousness,  all  the  fervor  of  John  Winthrop  without 
a  trace  of  intolerance,  all  the  tact  of  Lord  Baltimore  with  still 
greater  industry  and  zeal.    He  was  far  in  advance  of  his  age  in 
humanity.    At  a  time  when  scores  of  offenses  were  punishable 
by  death  in  England,  he  made  murder  the  only  capital  crime  in 
his  colony.    Prisons  gen 
erally   were    filthy   dun 
geons,  but  Penn  made 
his   prisons  workhouses 
for  the  education  and  cor 
rection  of  malefactors. 
His  province  was  the  first 
to  raise  its  voice  against 
slavery  (in  the  German- 
town  protest  of    1688), 
and    his    humane   treat 
ment  of  the  Indians  has 
passed  into   the  legend 
of  the  spreading  elm  and 

the  wampum  belts  familiar  to  every  American  school  child. 
When  Penn's  firm  hand  was  removed  from  the  province  (1712), 
disputes  and  wranglings  arose  between  governor  and  assembly 
over  taxes,  land  transfers,  trade,  and  defense ;  but  the  colony 
remained  in  the  possession  of  the  Penn  family  throughout  the 
American  colonial  period. 

Disappointed  that  his  charter  of  1681  gave  him  no  coast  line,  76.  pennse- 
Penn  persuaded  the  Duke  of  York  in  1682  to  release  to  him  "Three Lower 
the  land  which  Stuyvesant  had  wrested  from  the  Swedes  on 
the  Delaware  in  1655,  and  which,  in  spite  of  Baltimore's  pro 
tests,  had  been  held  as  a  part  of  New  York  ever  since  the 
English  "  conquest "  of  1664.   This  territory,  called  the  "  Three 


Penn  treating  with  the  Indians 
From  an  old  woodcut 


66  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

Lower  Counties,"  Penn  governed  by  a  deputy.  The  Lower 
Counties  were  separated  from  Pennsylvania  in  1702,  and, 
under  the  name  of  the  colony  of  Delaware,  were  given  their 
own  legislature ;  but  they  remained  a  part  of  the  proprietary 
domain  of  the  Penn  family  till  the  American  Revolution. 
77.  The  col-  For  the  sake  of  completeness  we  must  mention  among  these 
proprietorships  the  colony  of  Georgia,  although  it  was  founded 
long  after  the  Stuart  dynasty  had  given  place  to  the  House 
of  Hanover  on  the  English  throne.  In  the  year  that  George 
Washington  was  born  (1732),  James  Oglethorpe  obtained  from 
Parliament  a  charter  granting  to  a  body  of  trustees  for  twenty- 
one  years  the  government  of  the  unsettled  part  of  the  old  Caro 
lina  territory  south  of  the  Savannah  River.  It  was  a  combined 
charitable,  business,  and  political  venture.  Oglethorpe,  who,  as 
chairman  of  a  parliamentary  committee  of  investigation,  had 
been  horrified  by  the  condition  of  English  prisons,  wished  to 
provide  an  opportunity  for  poor  debtors  and  criminals  to  work 
out  their  salvation  in  the  New  World.  The  Church  was  anx 
ious  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  on  the  Carolina  bor 
ders.  Capitalists  saw  in  the  projected  silk  and  wine  cultivation  a 
promise  of  large  profits.  And  the  government,  drifting  already 
toward  the  war  with  Spain  which  was  declared  in  1739,  was 
glad  to  have  the  English  frontier  extended  southward  toward 
the  Spanish  settlement  of  Florida.  So  Parliament,  the  society 
for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel  in  foreign  parts,  the  Bank  of 
England,  and  many  private  citizens  contributed  toward  the  new 
colony,  which  was  established  on  the  banks  of  the  Savannah  in 
1733,  and  named  Georgia  after  the  reigning  king,  George  II. 
Slavery  was  forbidden  in  the  new  colony,  also  the  traffic  in  rum, 
which  was  a  disgrace  to  the  New  England  colonies  of  Massa 
chusetts  and  Rhode  Island.  But  the  colony  did  not  prosper. 
The  convicts  were  poor  workers.  The  industries  started  were 
unsuited  to  the  land.  Not  wine  and  silk,  but  rice  and  cotton, 
were  destined  to  be  the  foundation  of  Georgia's  prosperity. 
Oglethorpe  battled  manfully  for  his  failing  colony,  and  defeated 


The  English  Colonies  67 

the  Spaniards  on  land  and  sea ;  but  the  trustees  had  to  sur 
render  the  government  to  the  king  in  1752.  The  founder  of  the 
last  American  colony  lived  to  see  the  United  States  acknowl 
edged  by  Great  Britain  and  the  other  powers  of  Europe  as  an 
independent  nation. 


THE  COLONIES  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

We  have  now  traced  the  history  of  the  establishment  of  the  78.  Tendency 
English  colonies  in  America.    It  remains  to  devote  a  few  pages  Jo  become"1* 

to  the  economic  and  social  condition  of  the  colonies  in  their  royal  prov 
inces 
maturity  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

A  glance  at  the  accompanying  table  and  map  (pp.  68  and 
69)  will  show  how  steady  the  tendency  was  for  the  colonies, 
especially  those  founded  by  proprietors,  to  become  royal  prov 
inces.  Only  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  escaped  at  least  a 
short  period  of  the  king's  control ;  and  repeated  proposals 
were  made  in  Parliament  in  the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century  to  suppress  the  few  remaining  colonial  charters  and 
unite  all  the  colonies  into  one  large  province  of  the  English 
crown,  to  be  governed  by  the  king's  officers  and  provided  with 
a  provincial  assembly.  The  causes  for  this  tightening  of  royal 
control  lay  partly  in  the  incompetency  and  selfishness  of  the 
proprietors,  partly  in  the  European  politics,1  partly  in  the  need 
for  protection  against  the  French  in  Canada  and  their  Indian 
allies.  But  the  chief  cause  of  the  king's  interference  in  colonial 
affairs  was  his  desire  to  control  their  trade  and  manufactures  for 
his  own  profit. 

The  political  economists  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  79.  The  mer- 
centuries  quite  commonly  believed  that  a  nation's  wealth  was 
measured  not  by  the  amount  of  desirable  goods  which  it  could 
produce  and  exchange,  but  by  the  quantity  of  gold  and  silver 

1  With  the  accession  of  William  of  Orange,  in  1689,  England  was  involved  in 
a  long  period  of  war  with  France,  and  needed  to  concentrate  all  her  resources. 
See  Cheyney's  Short  History  of  England,  chap.  xvii. 


68 


The  Establishment  of  tJie  English 


which  it  could  amass,  —  the  miser's  ideal.  In  accordance  with 
this  "mercantile"  theory  of  commerce,  as  it  was  called,  every 
nation  tried  to  buy  as  little  from  others  and  sell  as  much  to 
others  as  possible,  so  that  the  "  favorable  balance "  of  cash 


1682 


1752 


Map  illustrating  the  Growth  in  the  Number  of  Royal  Provinces  from 

1682  to   1752 
The  royal  provinces  are  colored  red 

might  come  into  its  coffers.  Naturally  the  European  countries 
would  look  on  their  colonies,  then,  as  places  in  which  to  sell 
goods.  The  colonies  should  furnish  the  raw  materials  —  iron, 
wool,  furs,  hides  —  to  the  mother  country,  and  then  should  buy 
back  the  finished  products  —  steel,  clothing,  hats,  shoes  - 
from  the  mother  country,  paying  the  difference  in  coin.  Where 


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Lord  Baltimore 

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Emigrants  from 
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69 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


80.  The 


i 660-1663 


the  money  was  to  come  from,  when  the  colonies  were  forbidden 
either  to  manufacture  goods  themselves  or  to  sell  raw  material  to 
the  other  nations,  does  not  seem  greatly  to  have  concerned  the  Eu 
ropean  statesmen.  They  believed  that  colonies  existed  for  the  ad 
vantage  of  the  mother  country,  and  that  if  they  could  not  increase 
the  flow  of  gold  and  silver  into  her  treasury,  they  were  useless. 

So  Charles  II 's  ministers  were 
neither  more  nor  less  at  fault  than 
those  of  the  European  countries 
generally,  when  in  1660-1663 
they  fastened  on  the  American 
colonies  the  Navigation  Acts,  or 
laws  of  trade.  No  goods  could  be 
carried  into  or  out  of  the  colonies 
except  in  ships  built  in  the  English 
domains  and  manned  by  crews  of 
which  two  thirds  at  least  were  Eng 
lish  subjects.  No  foreign  goods 
could  be  brought  into  the  colonies 
without  first  stopping  in  England 
to  pay  duties  or  be  inspected. 
Certain  "enumerated  articles,"  in 
cluding  tobacco,  cotton,  furs,  sugar, 
rice,  could  not  be  exported  from 
the  colonies  to  any  port  outside 
the  British  domain ;  and  all  colo 
nial  manufactures  which  competed 
with  English  industry  were  forbidden.  To  be  sure,  England 
softened  the  effect  of  the  Navigation  Acts  by  giving  the  enu 
merated  colonial  goods  the  preference,  or  even  a  monopoly, 
in  her  markets,  and,  by  a  system  of  "  drawbacks "  or  re 
bates,  reduced  the  duties  which  the  colonies  had  to  pay  on 
goods  shipped  through  English  ports.  But  nevertheless  it  was  a 
great  hindrance  to  the  commercial  prosperity  of  the  colonies  to 
forbid  them  to  buy  and  sell  directly  in  the  markets  of  Europe, 


AN  ACT 

FOR 

Increafe  of  Shipping> 

And  hncouragemcnt  of  the 

NAVIGATION 

OF    THIS 

NATION. 

fl>*  tilt  Ifncrcafe  oE 
the  Shipping  auD  tlic 
encouragement  of  tlje 
jBftMgfttioa  of  tins 
Ration,  iDljicl)  unDcr 
Ujc  goob  pzoluDcnrc 
anb  protection  of  Got*  , 
is  fo  great  a  in  tans  of 
tl)CB9clfareai!o£>afe= 
__  tp  of  ttjls  Commons 
Sc  itenactebbp  trrts  pzcfent  parlia 
ent,  anb  tl)e  3utrjoj<tp  thereof  ,  ^Lrjatfrom 
anb  after  tl)t  $  (rft  bap  of  December,  £)ne  tljou* 
fana  fit  IjuuD:  CD  fifty  one,  anb  from  tOcuccfoz- 
IDaros  ,  jTo  Ooobs  or  Cotnmobittes  u>iv.tfo- 
euet,  of  the  CjoibtD,  pjobuctton  oj  fi)9anufa= 

ttnte  Of  Afia  ,  Affrici  OJ  America  ,  0?  Of  an?  P«tt 

thereof,  o?  of  anp31flanbs  belonging  to  ttjcm, 
o*  an?  of  trjem  ,  of  ttfticl)  are  befcrtbeb  oj  lap 
noton  tn  tl)c  ufual  4i0aps  cj  Carbs  of  tljofc 
places,  asxbellof  trjeCngUOi  plantattons  as 
,  (rjallbejmpojteb  o?  b?oosl;H»to  ttjis 


Facsimile  of  the  Navigation  Act 
of  1651 


The  English  Colonies  71 

and  a  severe  blow  to  their  industrial  life  to  prohibit  their  rising 
manufactures.  It  was  like  killing  the  goose  that  laid  the  golden 
eggs.  For  only  by  their  trade  with  the  French  and  Spanish  Indies, 
which  wanted  their  timber  and  furs,  .could  the  colonies  get  that 
coin  which  England  demanded  to  maintain  her  "  favorable  bal 
ance."  The  fact  that  five  sixths  of  the  laws  passed  by  Parlia 
ment  from  1689  to  1760,  touching  the  colonies,  were  for  the 
regulation  of  trade  and  manufactures  shows  how  serious  was 
this  policy  of  restricting  the  commerce  and  industry  of  America. 
But  for  all  the  laws  of  Parliament,  illicit  trade  flourished,  and 
was  the  foundation  of  many  a  considerable  colonial  fortune. 
Probably  90  per  cent  of  the  tea,  wine,  fruit,  sugar,  and  molasses 
consumed  in  the  colonies  was  smuggled.  "  If  the  king  of  Eng 
land,"  said  James  Otis,  "  were  encamped  on  Boston  Common 
with  twenty  thousand  men,  and  had  all  his  navy  on  our  coast, 
he  could  not  execute  these  laws." 

Fortunately  for  the  economic  life  of  the  colonies,  the  king's  81.  why  the 
ministers  did  not  devote  their  serious  attention  to  the  enforce-  Actswere'not 
ment  of  the  Navigation  Acts  until  the  eighteenth  century  was  enforced 
some  sixty  years  old.  War  with  Louis  XIV  of  France  began 
when  William  of  Orange  ascended  the  English  throne  in  1689, 
and  lasted  almost  uninterruptedly  to  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  (1713). 
Then  for  twenty  years  England's  great  peace  minister,  Robert 
Walpole,  directed  the  government,  wisely  overlooking  the  irreg 
ularities  of  colonial  commerce  so  long  as  its  prosperity  contrib 
uted  to  England's  wealth  and  quiet.  Toward  the  middle  of  the 
century  the  war  with  France  was  renewed,  and  the  decade  1750- 
1760  witnessed  the  culmination  of  the  mighty  struggle  for  the 
New  World  between  France  and  England,  which  will  be  the 
subject  of  our  next  chapter.  We  shall  see  how  the  removal  of 
the  French  from  America  affected  the  colonial  policy  of  Eng 
land.  Our  interest  at  present  is  in  noting  that  the  long  period 
of  England's  "  salutary  neglect "  permitted  the  colonies  to  de 
velop  their  trade  and  manufactures  to  a  considerable  degree,  in 
spite  of  the  oppressive  Navigation  Acts. 


72  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

82.  The  The  American  colonists  numbered  about   1,300,000  in  the 

middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.   They  were  mostly  of  English 


m  the  eight-    stock,  though  the  Dutch  were  still  numerous  on  the  Hudson 
eenth  century 

and  the  Delaware.    French  Huguenots  had  come  in  considerable 

numbers  to  the  middle  and  lower  colonies,  Germans  from  the 
Rhine  country  had  settled  in  Pennsylvania,  and  the  Scotch-Irish, 
that  sterling,  hardy  race  of  men  which  has  given  us  some  of  the 
most  distinguished  names  in  our  history,  had  come  in  great  num 
bers  to  Pennsylvania,  and  thence  passed  up  the  Shenandoah 
valley  into  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.  Immigration  practically 
ceased  about  1730,  not  to  be  renewed  on  a  large  scale  until  the 
age  of  steamships  a  century  later.  There  were  between  two 
and  three  hundred  thousand  negro  slaves  distributed  through 
the  colonies,  —  a  few  house  servants  and  men  of  all  work  in  the 
New  England  States,  a  greater  number  in  the  Middle  States 
and  Virginia,  while  farther  south  they  even  outnumbered  the 
whites  in  some  districts  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia. 

83.  Types  of        There  were  well-defined  types  of  colonial  society,  due  to  cir- 
colonial  so-  .         .         .         ,.  „  ,.  .  .     ,  „ 

ciety.  The      cumstances  of  emigration  from  Europe,  conditions  of  the  soil, 


En  land  P°^^ca^  institutions,  and  religious  beliefs.  These  types  were  the 
more  marked,  as  there  were  no  adequate  means  of  communica 
tion  or  routes  of  travel  between  the  colonies.  New  England 
was  inhabited  by  pure  English  stock,  and  retained  for  many 
generations  its  Puritan  character.  The  early  immigrants  had 
come  in  congregations  and  settled  in  compact  groups,  making 
little  self-governing  towns  clustered  about  the  church,  the  school, 
and  the  village  green.  Learning  was  more  carefully  nurtured 
and  widely  diffused  in  New  England  than  anywhere  else  in  the 
colonies.1  Before  1650  public-school  instruction  had  been  made 

1  The  Puritan  leaders  of  the  New  England  settlements  were  highly  educated 
men,  who  prized  learning  for  the  support  it  furnished  to  their  independent  re 
ligious  ideas.  Where  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  depended,  as  it  did  in  the 
Puritan  system,  on  one's  own  enlightened  mind,  universal  education  was  a  neces 
sity.  The  Massachusetts  legislature,  which  voted  ^"400  in  1636  "  to  found  a  col 
lege  at  Newtowne  "  (Cambridge),  was  "the  first  body  in  which  the  people  by 
their  representatives  ever  gave  their  own  money  to  found  a  place  of  education  " 
(Quincy,  History  of  Harvard  University,  Vol.  II,  p.  654). 


The  English  Colonies 


73 


compulsory  in  all  New  England  except  Rhode  Island,  in  order 
"  that  learning,"  in  the  noble  words  of  the  Massachusetts  stat 
ute,  "  might  not  be  buried  in  the  graves  of  the  fathers."  Har 
vard  College  was  established  six  years  after  Winthrop's  landing, 
and  "  before  the  nightly  howl  of  the  wolf  had  ceased  from  the 
outskirts  of  their  villages  "  the  Massachusetts  settlers  had  made 
provision  whereby  their  young  men  might  study  the  master 
minds  of  the  world.  The  excellent  Earl  of  Bellomont,  coming 


Harvard  College  in  1726 

as  royal  governor  to  Massachusetts  in  1700,  wondered  how  so 
much  learning  could  exist  in  the  province  side  by  side  with  so 
much  fanaticism. 

The  stony  soil  and  rigorous  climate  of  New  England  made  84.  The  New 
the  farmer's  life  a  fit  preparation  for  enduring  the  rough  march 
or  toiling  on  the  rude  fortifications  against  the  Indians,  whose 
war  whoop  so  often  interrupted  his  plowing  and  planting. 
The  schools  of  bluefish,  mackerel,  and  cod  off  the  coast  devel 
oped  a  race  of  hardy  fishermen  in  the  seaport  towns ;  while 
the  fleet  sloops  and  cutters  of  the  aristocratic  merchants  slipped 
by  the  customs  patrol  with  the  smuggled  goods  of  the  Indies. 
Until  the  rise  of  a  class  of  brilliant  young  lawyers  like  Otis  and 


74  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

the  Adamses,  on  the  eve  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  clergy 
were  the  undisputed  leaders  of  society.  Education  was  entirely 
in  their  hands,  and  the  magistrates  were  controlled  by  a  public 
opinion  largely  inspired  from  the  pulpits  of  the  Puritan  divines. 
With  the  virtues  of  soberness,  industry,  scrupulous  conscien 
tiousness,  and  a  high  standard  of  private  and  public  morality, 
Puritanism  also  unfortunately  developed  narrowness,  self-right 
eousness,  and  unwholesome  cultivation  of  the  austere  and  joy 
less  sides  of  life.  The  first  play  that  ventured  to  invite  the 
applause  of  a  New  England  audience,  "  The  Orphan,"  enacted 
in  a  Boston  coffeehouse  in  1750,  was  prohibited  as  "tending 
to  discourage  industry  and  frugality  and  greatly  to  increase  im 
piety."  At  the  same  time  New  York,  Baltimore,  and  cities  to  the 
south  were  centers  of  gayety. 

85.  con-  No  greater  contrast  could  be  imagined  than  that  of  the  hardy 

sented  b*y  dif-  °ld  Puritan  divine,  Samuel  Emery,  preaching  interminable  ser- 
mons  m  the  arctic  c°ld  of  a  Maine  meetinghouse  without  seats, 
windows,  or  plaster,  on  a  salary  of  ^45  a  year,  payable  one  half 
in  farm  truck  and  firewood,  prepared  every  moment  to  seize  his 
musket  at  the  sound  of  the  Indian  war  whoop,  and  fortified  by 
inward  grace  against  the  still  more  redoubtable  attacks  of  the 
tart  tongues  of  "  frightfully  turbulent  women  "  in  his  congrega 
tion  ;  and  the  rich  Carolina  planter,  wintering  among  the  fashion 
able  throng  at  Charleston,  sipping  costly  wines  at  gay  suppers, 
handing  richly  gowned  women  to  their  chariots  with  the  grace 
of  King  Louis's  courtiers,  gaming,  dueling,  drinking,  and  re 
mitting  generous  sums  of  his  plantation  profits  to  the  son  estab 
lished  in  gentleman's  quarters  at  Tory  Oxford.  Of  course  such 
a  picture  is  not  fair  to  the  average  life  in  the  colonies,  north 
and  south.  There  were  wealthy  aristocrats  among  the  Puritans 
of  New  England,  as  "  Tory  Row  "  in  Cambridge  testified ;  and 
there  were  numerous  settlers  of  hardy  Huguenot  and  Scotch" 
Irish  stock  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.  Nevertheless,  the 
contrast  between  New  England  and  the  colonies  south  of  the 
Potomac  was  marked. 


The  English  Colonies 


75 


The  rich  soil  of  the  South,  with  its  staple  crops  of  tobacco  86.  Thepian- 
and  rice,  favored  the  plantation  system  and  slave  labor.    Broad  S  ° 

navigable  rivers,  reaching  well  up  into  the  level  lands,  gave  every 
planter  his  private  wharf,  and  made  the  huge  plantations  re 
semble  feudal  estates,  with  their  stately  manor  houses  domi 
nating  the  stables,  the  storage  sheds,  and  the  clustering  huts  of 
the  slave  quarters.  In  Virginia,  and  perhaps  to  some  extent  in 
the  Carolinas,  these  estates,  by  the  laws  of  "primogeniture"  and 


A  Colonial  Mansion  in  the  South 


"  entail,"  descended  undivided  to  the  eldest  son  of  the  family, 
while  the  younger  sons  either  entered  the  ranks  of  the  clergy 
and  the  professions  of  physicians  and  lawyers,  or  sometimes 
became  shiftless  dependents  and  rovers. 

A  public-school  system  was  impossible  when  the  white  popu-  87.  culture 
lation  was  so  scattered  that  a  planter  needed  a  field  glass  to  see  in  the  South 
his  neighbor's  house.    The  slaves  might  be  taught  the  elements 
of  religion  by  a  conscientious  mistress,  but  "book  learning" 
was  no  part  of  their  equipment  for  the  rice  swamps,  the  kitchen, 
or  the  hunting  stables.    On  court  days  the  squires  and  rustics 
gathered  at  the  county  center,  making  a  holiday  with  racing 


76  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

and  speech  making ;  but  the  tense  and  steady  political  interest 
of  the  New  England  town  meeting  was  unknown.1 

88.  The  mid-       The  settlements  between  the  Hudson  and  the  Potomac  were 

"  middle  colonies  "  in  character  as  well  as  in  situation, — between 
the  puritanical,  democratic  type  of  New  England,  and  the  urbane, 
aristocratic,  hospitable  society  of  the  South,  so  tenacious  of  rank 
and  tradition.  Politically  these  middle  colonies  combined  some 
features  of  both  the  township  government  of  the  North  and  the 
county  government  of  the  South.  They  were  (as  they  still  are) 
cosmopolitan  in  population,  and  the  region  was  most  attractive 
to  foreign  immigration.  A  Jesuit  missionary  of  Canada  passing 
through  New  Amsterdam  in  1643  found  eighteen  languages 
spoken  among  its  four  hundred  inhabitants,  and  noted  an  in 
tense  devotion  to  money  making,  which  precluded  much  inter 
est  in  education  or  religion.  There  were  but  two  churches  in 
the  city  when  it  was  surrendered  to  the  English  in  1664. 

89.  why  In  lands  so  recently  reclaimed  from  the  virgin  forest  and  the 
deveioped°n      savage  Indian  as  were  the  American  colonies,  the  progress  of 

slowly  in  the  civilization  was  naturally  slow.    As  late  as  the  outbreak  of  the 
colonies 

Revolutionary  War,  John  Dickinson  of  Pennsylvania  could  write, 

"  Some  few  towns  excepted,  we  are  all  tillers  of  the  soil  from 
Nova  Scotia  to  West  Florida."  Still  Benjamin  Franklin,  already 
high  in  the  estimation  of  Europeans  for  his  scientific  discoveries, 
when  founding  the  first  American  Philosophical  Society  (1743), 
wrote :  "  The  first  drudgery  of  settling  new  colonies  is  pretty 
well  over,  and  there  were  many  in  every  colony  in  circumstances 
which  set  them  at  ease  to  cultivate  the  finer  arts  and  improve 
the  common  stock  of  knowledge." 

90.  Estab-  An  enterprising  governor  of  New  York,  toward  the  end  of  the 
postafsystem  seventeenth  century,  started  a  monthly  postal  service  between 
in  the  colonies  New  York  and  Boston,  over  the  New  Haven-Hartford-Springfield 

route  now  followed  by  the  railroad.   In  1710  Parliament  extended 

1  In  Virginia  there  was  a  sort  of  county  government  by  the  parish  vestries, 
but  in  South  Carolina  every  magistrate  was  appointed  in  Charleston  and  every 
court  held  there.  Of  county  or  township  government  there  was  no  trace  until 
after  the  Civil  War. 


The  English  Colonies  77 

the  British  post  office  to  America,  with  headquarters  at  New  York, 
and  routes  reaching  from  the  Maine  border  on  the  north  to  Wil- 
liamsburg,  the  capital  of  Virginia,  on  the  south.  Later  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  for  many  years  postmaster-general  of  the  colonies, 
and  administered  the  office  with  great  skill. 

Public  schools  existed  from  the  first  in  New  England,  as  we  91.  Educa- 
have  seen,  but  were  not  established  in  the  middle  and  southern  colonies 
colonies  until  the  eighteenth  century.  For  over  half  a  century 
Harvard  was  the  only  college  in  America;  then  followed  William 
and  Mary  in  Virginia  (1693),  Yale  in  Connecticut  (1701),  Prince 
ton  in  New  Jersey  (1746),  Philadelphia  (now  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania)  (1749),  King's  (now  Columbia)  in  New  York 
(1754),  Rhode  Island  (now  Brown  University)  (1764).  The  first 
medical  treatise  in  America  was  published  by  Thomas  Thacher 
in  Boston  in  1678,  "  to  guide  the  common  people  of  New  Eng 
land  how  to  order  themselves  and  theirs  in  the  Small  Pocks  or 
Measels."  But  it  was  a  full  century  before  the  first  medical 
school  was  opened  in  Philadelphia,  with  lectures  in  anatomy, 
botany,  and  Lavoisier's  discoveries  in  chemistry.  Even  then 
the  science  of  medicine  was  crude  and  clumsy  beyond  belief. 
George  Washington's  life  was  sacrificed  to  medical  ignorance  in 
1799.  He  was  "  bled  "  three  times  by  the  leeches,  and  then,  after 
the  loss  of  two  quarts  of  blood,  was  "  dosed  to  nausea  and  blis 
tered  to  rawness."  Even  his  stout  constitution  could  not  stand 
the  heroic  treatment.  His  secretary  wrote  sadly  :  "  Every  medical 
assistance  was  offered,  but  without  the  desired  result." 

In  1638  the  first  font  of  type  was  brought  from  England,  92.  Printing 
and  in  1640  the  Book  of  Psalms  in  meter  (the  old  "  Bay  Psalm 
Book ")  was  printed  in  Boston,  —  the  first  book  printed  in 
America  north  of  the  city  of  Mexico.  On  September  26,  1690, 
the  first  newspaper  in  America,  Publick  Occurrences  both  For 
eign  and  Domestic,  appeared  in  Boston ;  but  it  was  promptly 
suppressed  by  the  government  "  under  high  resentment."  How 
ever,  in  1704  the  Boston  News-Letter  had  a  kinder  reception 
by  the  authorities,  and  became  the  first  permanent  newspaper. 


78  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

Within  the  next  half  century  all  the  colonies  except  New  Jersey, 
Delaware,  and  Georgia  had  Gazettes  or  Chronicles.,  and  there 
were  three  or  four  respectable  periodicals.  But  few  books  were 
produced  in  the  colonies.  The  educated  depended  on  England 
for  their  scientific  works,  and  read  with  avidity  the  ponderous 
novels  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  colonial  presses  were 
chiefly  devoted  to  sermons  and  political  "  broadsides." 


The  Boftoti  News-Letter. 


by 


From  flOnDa^    April  17.  to  fl^OnDa?    April   24.   1704. 


170;. 


Etters  from  Scotland  bring  us  the  Copy  of 


From  all  this  he  infers,  That  they  have  hopes  of 
Afliftance  from  France,  otherw'ife  they  would  never 
be  fo  impudent ,  and  he  gives  Reafons  for  his  Ap- 


Lt  „  .  .  , „. 

a  Sheet  lately  Printed  there,  Intituled',  A  I  prehcnfions  that  the  Fnn°lj  King  may  {end  Troops 

feafonablt  Alarm  for  Scotland.     Inn  Letter  thither  this  Winter,   i.  Becaufethe  Engtljb  &Dutch 

from  aGentleman  in  the  Citato  bit  Friend  in-  will  not  then  be  at  Sea  to  oppofe  them.     z.  He  can 

the  Cfteiny,  concerning  the  pfeftnt   Danger  then  beft  fpare  them,  the  Seafon  of  Action  beyond 

t)  the  Kingdom  mid'cf  tlx  Proteftant  Religion.  Sea  being  over.  3.  The  Expedition  given  him  of  a 

This  Letter  takes  Notice,  ThatPapifts  fwarm  in  confiderable  number  to joyn.them,  may  incourage 

that  Nation,  that  they  traffiek  more  avowedly  than  him  to  the  undertaking  witli  fewer  Men,if  he  cart 

formerly,  and  that  of  late  many  Scores  of  Pnefts  &  but  fend  over  a  fufficient  number  of  Officers  with 

Jcfuires  arc  come  thither  from  France,  and  gone  to  Arms  and  Ammunition. 

the  North,  to  the  Highlands  &  other  places  of  the  He  endeavours  in  the  reft  of  his  Letters  to  an- 

Country.  That  the  Minifter*  of  the  Highlands  and  fwcr  the  fooltfli  Pretences  of  the  Preten'der's  being 

North  gave  in  large  Lifts  of  them  to  the  Commit-  a  Prottftant  and  that  he  will  govern  Us  according 

tee  of  the  General  Aflcmbly,  to  be  laid  before  the  to  Law.    He  fays,  that  being  br«rd  up  in  the  Reli- 

Privj'CoUnctl.  gion  and  Politicks  of  France,  he  is  by  Education  a 

Facsimile  of  the  Earliest  Successful  Newspaper  in  America 

93.  The  free-  In  1734  a  poor  New  York  printer  named  Peter  Zenger  was 
press°vindi-  tried  for  "  seditious  libel  "  in  speaking  freely  of  the  government, 
cated,  1734  He  was  defended  by  the  aged  Andrew  Hamilton  of  Philadelphia, 
the  ablest  lawyer  in  the  colonies,  who  came  to  offer  his  services 
gratis  in  a  cause  which  he  rightly  deemed  of  the  utmost  impor 
tance.  "  It  is  not  the  case  of  a  poor  printer  nor  of  New  York 
alone,"  he  said  in  his  fine  plea.  "  No  !  it  may  in  its  consequences 
affect  every  freeman  that  lives  under  a  British  government  in  the 
main  [land]  of  America,  securing  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity 
the  liberty  both  of  exposing  and  opposing  arbitrary  power  by 
speaking  and  writing  the  truth."  Hamilton  won  his  case,  and  the 
freedom  of  the  press  was  thus  early  vindicated  in  our  history. 


The  English  Colonies  79 

The  observant  Swedish  traveler  Kalm,  visiting  America  in  94.  Lack  of 
1750,  was  astonished  at  the  isolation  of  the  colonies  from  one  J^intance  i] 
another,  and  it  is  said  that  the  delegates  who  met  from  nine  of  the  colonies 
them  in  a  congress  at  New  York  fifteen  years  later  regarded 
each  other  "  like  ambassadors  from  foreign  nations,  strange  in 
face  and  action."    It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  colonies 
knew  little  of  one  another  in  days  when  travel  by  stage,  sloop, 
or  saddle  was  laborious  and  expensive ;  nor  that  little  love  was 
lost  between  them  when  boundaries  were  constantly  in  dispute 
on  account  of  the  reckless  grants  of  the  Stuart  charters,  and 
when  jealousies  were  rife  over  the  appropriations  of  men  and 
money  for  Indian  defense. 

Yet,  for  all  the  diversity  of  type  and  disunion  of  sentiment  95.  Factors 
in  the  colonies,  there  were  some  very  fundamental  bonds  of  f0r  unity  of 
union  between  them.  They  were  all  predominantly  of  English 
blood,  with  the  inheritance  of  the  English  traditions  of  self- 
government.  Popular  assemblies  insisted  on  the  control  of  the 
public  purse  in  every  colony  from  New  Hampshire  to  Georgia. 
The  common  law  of  England  was  universal.  Trial  by  jury,  lib 
erty  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  freedom  from  standing  armies, 
absence  of  oppressive  land  taxes,  —  in  short,  the  rights  and 
privileges  for  which  free-born  Englishmen  had  contended  from 
the  days  of  Magna  Carta  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Stuarts,  — 
were  possessed  and  prized  by  all  the  colonies.  And  when  these 
guarantees  of  liberty  were  invaded  by  a  headstrong  king  and  a 
heedless  Parliament,  the  people  of  the  colonies  forgot  that  they 
were  Virginians  or  New  Englanders,  Episcopalians  or  Puritans, 
planters,  traders,  farmers,  or  fishermen,  in  the  prouder,  deeper 
consciousness  that  they  were  freemen. 

REFERENCES 

The  Old  Dominion :  L.  G.  TYLER,  Narratives  of  Early  Virginia,  1606- 
1625  (Original  Narratives  of  Early  American  History) ;  JOHN  FISKE, 
Old  Virginia  and  her  Neighbors  ;  JUSTIN  WINSOR,  Narrative  and  Crit 
ical  History  of  America,  Vol.  Ill,  chap,  v  \  C.  M,  ANDREWS,  Colonial 


8o  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

Self- Government  (American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  xiii,  xiv;  L.  G. 
TYLER,  England  in  America  (American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  iii-vi ; 
EDW.  CHANNING,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  I,  pp.  143-236 ; 
J.  A.  DOYLE,  English  Colonies  in  America,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  vi— ix. 

The  New  England  Settlements :  CHANNING,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  x-xv ; 
Vol.  II,  chaps,  vi,  vii;  FISKE,  The  Beginnings  of  Arew  England;  DOYLE, 
Vols.  II  and  III  ;  WINSOR,  Vol.  Ill,  chaps,  viii,  ix ;  TYLER  (Am.  Nation), 
chaps,  ix-xix ;  ANDREWS,  chaps,  iii,  iv,  xvi,  xvii ;  W.  T.  DAVIS,  Brad 
ford's  History  of  Plymouth  (Orig.  Narr.)  ;  J.  K.  HOSMER,  Winthrop's 
Journal  (Orig.  Narr.)  ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Contem 
poraries,  Vol.  I,  Nos.  90-149. 

The  Proprietary  Colonies  :  DOYLE,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  x-xii ;  Vol.  IV,  chaps, 
i-vii ;  J.  F.  JAMESON,  Narratives  of  New  Netherland  (Orig.  Narr.) ;  FISKE, 
Old  Virginia  and  her  Neighbors,  chaps,  viii,  ix,  xiii,  xiv ;  The  Dutch  and 
Quaker  Colonies  in  America;  CHANNING,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  xvi-xviii ;  Vol. 

II,  chaps,  ii,  iv,  xi,  xii ;  TYLER  (Am.  Nation),  chaps,  vii,  viii ;  ANDREWS, 
chaps,  v-xii,  xv-xix ;  H.  L.  OSGOOD,  The  American  Colonies  in  the  Sev 
enteenth  Century,  Vol.  II;  HART,  Vol.  I,  Nos.  153-172;  WINSOR,  Vol. 

III,  chaps,  x-xiii;  Vol.  V,  chaps,  iii-vi. 

The  Colonies  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  :  DOYLE,  Vol.  V  ;  E.  B.  GREENE, 
Provincial  America  (Am.  Nation),  chaps,  i-vi,  xi— xviii ;  R.  G.  THWAITES, 
The  Colonies,  pp.  265  ff. ;  HART,  Vol.  II,  Nos.  1-108 ;  CHANNING,  Vol. 
II,  chaps,  xiii-xvii ;  Cambridge  Modern  History,  Vol.  VII,  chap,  ii ; 
G.  L.  BEER,  The  Commercial  Policy  of  England  toward  the  American 
Colonies. 

TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  Bacon's  Rebellion  :  FISKE,  Old  Virginia,  Vol.  II,  pp.  58-107  ;  HART, 
Vol.  I,  No.  70 ;  ANDREWS,  pp.  215-231 ;  OSGOOD,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  258-278. 

2.  The  Pilgrims  in  England  and  Holland  :  M.  DEXTER,  The  Story  of  the 
.Pilgrims,  pp.  1-150;  CHANNING,  Vol.  I,  pp.  293-304;  HART,  Vol.  I, 

Nos.  49,  55,  97-104  ;  W.  E.  GRIFFIS,  The  Pilgrims  in  their  Three  Homes. 

3.  Dutch  New  York:   WINSOR,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  395-409;   CHANNING, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  438-483;  HART,  Vol.  I,  Nos.  150-155;  FISKE,  Dutch  and 
Quaker  Colonies,  Vol.  I,  pp.  158-188. 

4.  William  Penn :  FISKE,  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies,  Vol.  II,  pp. 
109-139  ;  WINSOR,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  469-495 ;  CHANNING,  Vol.  II,  pp.  94- 
126;  DOYLE,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  379-403 ;  Old  South  Leaflets,  Nos.  75,  171. 

5.  Religion  in  New  England:  WINSOR,  Vol.  II,  pp.  219-244;  DOYLE, 
Vol.  II,  pp.  85-120  ;  Vol.  V,  pp.  166-193  ;  OSGOOD,  Vol.  I,  pp.  200-221  ; 
Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  55. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  FRANCE  FOR  NORTH  AMERICA 

THE  RISE  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

Three  centuries  ago  the  kings  of  Europe  regarded  as  their  96.  European 
own  private  property  any  distant  lands  or  islands  that  mariners  America  in 
in  their  service  might  discover ;  and  they  granted  these  lands 
to  settlers  and  trading  companies  with  little  regard  for  each 
other's  claims.  We  have  mentioned  how  immense  tracts  of  land 
in  America,  extending  from  sea  to  sea,  were  given  away  by  the 
Stuart  kings,  on  the  ground  that  John  Cabot's  discovery  of  the 
mainland  of  America  in  1497  gave  the  New  World  to  England. 
The  States-General  (parliament)  of  the  Netherlands  in  1621 
granted  to  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  exclusive  privileges 
of  trade  "  on  the  east  coast  of  America  from  Newfoundland  to 
the  Strait  of  Magellan."  Seven  years  later  Richelieu,  the  pow 
erful  cardinal-minister  who  ruled  the  ruler  of  France,  granted 
to  the  "  Hundred  Associates  of  Canada  territory  and  trading 
rights,  extending  along  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Florida  to  the 
Arctic  circle."  Even  Sweden  entered  the  ranks  of  the  world- 
colonizing  powers  in  1632,  with  a  charter  to  a  company  "for 
trade  and  settlement  on  the  coasts  of  America,  Africa,  and  Asia." 
The  actual  results  of  these  ambitious  plans  were  meager  enough. 
The  Swedes  maintained  their  tiny  posts  on  the  Delaware  Riv^er 
for  less  than  twenty  years,  and  the  Dutch  held  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson  for  about  fifty  years.  Besides  the  English,  only  the 
French  came  anywhere  near  making  good,  by  settlement  or  ex 
ploration,  their  vast  claims  to  territory  in  North  America.  With 
.the  French  the  English  had  to  fight  for  the  possession  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  the  Ohio,  and  the  Mississippi  valleys. 

81 


82 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


97.  The  early 
French  ex 
plorers 


98.  Cartier  on 
the  St.  Law 
rence,  1534- 
1535 


The  French  were  early  in  the  field  of  American  exploration. 
Their  traditions  tell  of  the  discovery  of  distant  western  shores 
by  sailors  of  Dieppe  more  than  a  century  before  Columbus's 
birth.  At  any  rate,  the  fishing  vessels  of  the  Norman  and  Breton 
sea  dogs  were  looming  through  the  Newfoundland  fogs  soon 
after  Columbus's  death ;  and  Verrazano  had  sailed  the  Atlantic 
coast  from  Florida  to  Nova  Scotia  for  the  French  king  sixty 


JOUSTS 

EARLIESTWP 

1673-4 


Joliet's  Map  (from  Winsor's  "  Cartier  to  Frontenac  ") 

years  before  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  opened  the  epoch  of  English 
settlement  in  Virginia.  A  long  list  of  French  names  represent 
settlements  attempted  in  Brazil,  Carolina,  Newfoundland,  and 
Nova  Scotia  (Acadia)  during  the  sixteenth  century  ;  but  the  only 
real  discoverer  among  these  French  adventurers  was  Jacques 
Cartier,  of  St.  Malo  in  Brittany. 

In  1534  Cartier  sailed  into  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and 
on  his.  next  voyage  (1535)  discovered  the  broad  mouth  of  the 
river.  He  made  his  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  stopping  to  barter 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America       83 


(for  furs  at  Indian  villages  on  the  magnificent  sites  where  the 
i  cities  of  Quebec  and  Montreal  now  stand.    Just  beyond  Mon 
treal  the  way  to  the  China  Sea  (the  hope  held  out  by  every 
('westward-reaching  river  or  creek)  was  barred  by  the  rapids 
whose  name,  Lachine  ("  China  "),  still  tells  of  Cartier's  disap 
pointment  in  not  reaching  the  East  Indies.    For  several  years 
Cartier  labored  in  vain  to  establish  a  colony  on  the  St.  Lawrence, 

and  one  year  his  men  actually 
wintered  there.  But  the  noble 
river  of  Canada  was  destined, 
like  the  lowlands  of  Virginia, 
to  wait  until  the  opening  of  a 
new  century  before  its  savage 
tribes  were  disturbed  by  the 
permanent  presence  of  Euro 
peans. 

The  man  who  founded  the  99.  cham- 

-r-i          i  .       .      —,         ,        ,       plain  founds 

French  empire  in  Canada,  the  Quebec  (1608) 

"  Father  of  New  France,"  was 


Samuel  de  Champlain.  Trained  the  iroquois 
navigator,    scientific    student,1 
intrepid  explorer,  earnest  mis 
sionary,  unwearied  advocate  of 

French  expansion  in  the  New 
Champlain  s  Astrolabe 

World,  Champlain  established  a 

trading  post  on  the  mighty  rock  of  Quebec  in  1608.  The  little 
colony,  like  the  Pilgrim  settlement  at  Plymouth  twelve  years 
later,  barely  survived  its  first  winter.  But  an  unfortunate  cir 
cumstance  in  the  summer  of  1609  proved  more  disastrous  to 
the  French  rule  in  America  than  many  starving  winters.  Cham- 
plain  was  induced  by  the  Algonquin  Indians  along  the  river 

1  About  1870  a  farmer  turned  up  a  brass  astrolabe  near  the  Ottawa  River 
bearing  the  mark  "  Paris,  1603."  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  Champlain's. 
In  1600,  while  on  a  visit  to  the  Spanish  West  Indies,  Champlain  had  suggested 
the  great  advantage  to  commerce  which  would  result  from  digging  a  canal  through 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 


84  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

to  join  them  in  an  attack  on  their  old  enemies,  the  Iroquois, 
whose   confederation  of   five  powerful  tribes  stretched   from 
the  upper  Hudson  to  Lake  Erie.    The  expedition  led  Cham- 
plain's  canoes  into  the  sapphire  waters  of  the  Lake  of  the  Iro 
quois,  which  now  bears  his  name.    A  single  volley  from  the 
French  guns  put  to  flight  the  astounded  Indians  gathered  on 
the  shore  of  the  lake ;  but  Cham  plain  little  dreamed  of  the  far- 
reaching  effect  of  those  few  shots  that  startled  the  virgin  forest 
of  the  Lake  of  the  Iroquois.    On  that  very  July  day  of  1609 
Henry  Hudson  was  off  the  New  England  coast  on  his  way  to 
discover  the  river  which  was  to  take 
him  up  to  within  a  few  miles  of  the 
Lake.    The  defeat  of  the  Iroquois  by 
Champlain  made  that  powerful  league 
of  tribes  the  allies  of  the  Dutch  (and 
later  of  the  English)  on  the  Hudson, 
and  not  of  the  French  on  the  St.  Law 
rence.     They  massacred  the  French 
missionaries  and  exterminated  the  tribes 
Champlain  Tercentenary     that  iistened  to  their  preaching.   Their 
Medal  .      ,    - 

enmity  iorced  the  k  rench  explorers  and 

traders  to  seek  the  interior  of  America  by  the  northern  shores 
of  the  Great  Lakes ;  and  the  terror  which  their  name  spread 
westward  even  to  the  Mississippi  kept  the  Ohio  valley  from  ever 
being  a  safe  highway  of  commerce  between  the  French  posses 
sions  in  Canada  and  in  Louisiana  (the  Mississippi  Valley). 
loo.  French  Had  the  French  controlled  the  Ohio  valley  and  the  southern 
nization  "  shores  of  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario,  as  they  would  undoubtedly 
have  done  with  the  Iroquois  as  allies,  it  is  extremely  likely  that 
they  would  have  succeeded  in  their  long  struggle  to  confine 
the  English  within  the  narrow  strip  of  land  between  the  Alle 
gheny  Mountains  and  the  Atlantic.  Then  the  vast  continent  of 
America  above  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  would  have  developed  under 
French  instead  of  English  institutions.  What  the  French  ideas 
of  colonization  were  we  see  in  the  regulations  made  by  Richelieu 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America      85 

in  1627  to  1628  for  the  Hundred  Associates  of  New  France,  and 
by  the  ministers  of  Louis  XIV,  when  the  colony  became  a  prov 
ince  of  the  crown  in  1663.  None  but  Frenchmen  and  Roman 
Catholics  were  allowed  in  the  colony.  The  land  was  all  in  the 
hands  of  great  proprietors,  who  rented  strips  for  cultivation 
along  the  river  banks,  in  exchange  for  labor  on  their  big  estates 
or  payment  in  produce.  The  government  was  administered  by 
the  officers  of  the  company  or  the  crown,  without  the  direction 
or  even  the  advice  of  any  representative  assembly.  There  was 
no  local  government.  Justice  was  dispensed  by  the  magistrates 
without  trial  by  jury. 

The  self-rule  which  was  practically  enjoyed  by  every  English  101.  The 
colony  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  was  unknown  in  Canada.  In 
its  place  there  prevailed  the  system  known  as  "  paternalism,"  French  in 
which  treated  the  inhabitants  of  the  colony  like  irresponsible 
children  under  the  firm,  paternal  hand  of  its  governors.  They 
were  directed  by  the  government  not  only  what  taxes  to  pay, 
with  what  ports  to  trade,  what  laws  to  obey,  what  worship  to 
perform,  but  what  tools  to  use,  what  seeds  to  plant,  at  what  age 
to  marry,  and  how  large  families  to  bring  up.  This  absolute  and 
paternal  rule,  while  it  promoted  military  efficiency,  did  not  at 
tract  colonists.  In  spite  of  lavish  expenditures  by  the  king,  the 
colony  did  not  flourish.  During  the  seventeenth  century  the  Eng 
lish  population  along  the  Atlantic  coast  grew  to  four  hundred 
thousand,  while  the  French  in  Canada  barely  reached  eighteen 
thousand.  The  three  chief  posts  of  Quebec,  Three  Rivers,  and 
Montreal  were  strung  along  the  St.  Lawrence  at  intervals  of 
ninety  miles.  The  sparseness  of  population  permitted  agricul 
ture  to  be  carried  on  only  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  ports 
which  served  to  protect  the  settlers  from  the  Indians. 

Westward  through  the  St.  Lawrence  valley  and  along  the  102.  The 
shores  of  the  Great  Lakes  roamed  the  hunters  and  trappers 
and  fur  traders,  the  wood-rangers  (coureurs  de  bois)  who  defied 
the  trading  laws  of  the  king's  governor  at  Quebec.    These  wild 
Frenchmen  often  sacrificed  their  native  tongue,  their  religion, 


86 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


even  their  very  civilization  itself,  and  joined  the  aboriginal  Ameri 
can  tribes,  marrying  Indian  squaws,  eating  boiled  dog  and  mush, 
daubing  their  naked  bodies  with  greasy  war  paint,  and  leading 
the  hideous  dance  or  the  murderous  raid. 

103.  The          The  Catholic  priests  played  a  part  in  New  France  quite  as 

sionarieTin    important  as  that  of  the  Puritan  ministers  in  New  England. 

New  France  The  Jesuits,  a  strict  religious  order  inflamed  with  unquenchable 

missionary  zeal  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians,  came  to  the 


An  Early  French  Fort  in  Canada 

colony  in  its  earliest  years.  In  1634  they  were  the  pioneers  to 
the  savage  lands  of  the  Hurons  about  Georgian  Bay,  and  during 
the  whole  of  the  seventeenth  century  they  kept  side  by  side  with 
the  explorer  and  the  trader  in  their  march  westward.  They  have 
left  us  an  account  of  their  triumphs  and  martyrdoms  in  a  series 
of  annual  reports  sent  home  to  the  superior  of  their  order  in 
France  during  the  years  1632  to  1675.  These  "Jesuit  Rela 
tions  "  have  recently  been  edited  in  over  seventy  volumes  by  a 
distinguished  American  scholar.  They  form  one  of  the  most 
valuable  sources  for  the  study  of  the  French  in  America. 

Champlain  had  advocated  westward  expansion.    He  himself 
discovered  Lakes  Ontario  and  Huron  and  explored  the  Ottawa 


LA   SALLE    TAKING    POSSESSION    OF    LOUISIANA 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America       87 

valley.     He  sent  Jean  Nicolet  as  far  as  the  outlet  of  Lake  104.  French 
Superior  in  1634.    A  generation  of  explorers  and  traders  fol-  the  Great  °n 
lowed  in  Nicolet's  footsteps,  penetrating  the  western  wildernesses  L6akes' 
to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  and  even  reaching  the 
frozen  shores  of  Hudson  Bay.   In  1671  St.  Lusson,  standing  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  where  the  emerald  flood  of  Lake  Superior 
rushes  to  join  the  darker  waters  of  Lake  Huron,  took  posses 
sion,  with  great  pomp  and  pageant,  of  the  vast  Northwest  for 
his  sovereign  king,  Louis  XIV. 

Already  Robert  Cavalier,  the  Sieur  de  la  Salle,  who  was  to  105.  LaSaiie 
repeat  St.  Lusson's  ceremony  eleven  years  later  at  the  mouth  g?eaf  Missis- 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  so  complete  the  dominion  of  France  sippivaiiey 
from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  pushing  his  way  1670-1683 
down  the  Ohio  valley  to  reach  the  "  Big  Water "  (Mich  sipt) 
which  the  Indians  said  flowed  southward  for  innumerable  days. 
La  Salle  was  a  French  nobleman,  cultured,  aristocratic,  domi 
neering  ;  yet  he  sacrificed  wealth  and  ease,  bore  with  marvelous 
patience  repeated  and  overwhelming  misfortunes,  endured  physi 
cal  hardship  and  forest  travel  which  exhausted  even  his  Indian 
guides,  that  he  might  accomplish  his  single  purpose  of  extending 
the  name  and  power  of  France  in  the  New  World.  He  labored 
twelve  years  in  the  face  of  jealousy  and  detraction  at  home, 
treachery  in  his  own  ranks,  bankruptcy,  shipwreck,  and  mas 
sacre,  before  he  actually  guided  his  canoes  out  of  the  Illinois 
into  the  long-desired  stream  of  the  Mississippi  (February  6, 
1682).  The  Jesuit  priest  Marquette  and  the  trader  Joliet  had 
anticipated  him  by  nine  years,  sailing  down  the  great  river  as 
far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  but  returning  when  they  had 
satisfied  themselves  that  the  river  flowed  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
instead  of  the  western  sea.  La  Salle,  however,  was  stimulated 
by  a  greater  purpose  than  the  discovery  of  a  passage  to  China. 
He  was  adding  a  continent  to  the  dominion  of  France.  He 
planted  the  lilies  of  France  on  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
(April  9,  1682),  naming  the  huge  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
"  Louisiana  "  in  honor  of  his  sovereign,  Louis  XIV. 


1  Marquette  1673 
.La  Salle     1679-168G 

3  Hennepin   1680 

4  La  Salle      1681-1682 


French  Explorations  on  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America       89 

La  Salle  himself  did  not  live  to  develop  and  govern  the  new  106.  cham- 
domain  of  Louisiana.1    But  the  line  of  posts  down  the  Illinois  lane'  and 

and  the  Mississippi,  which  united  the  French  possessions   in  Frontenacthe 

.  .  builders  of 

Canada  and  Louisiana  ;   the  fortification  of  Detroit  (1701),  with  New  France 

its  control  of  Lake  Erie  and  the  portages  to  the  Ohio  tributaries  ; 
the  prosperous  colony  of  seven  thousand  inhabitants  in  the  lower 
Mississippi  Valley,  which  grew  up  with  New  Orleans  (founded 
1718)  as  its  capital,  —  all  were  the  outcome  of  La  Salle's  vast 
labors.  If  Champlain  was  the  father  of  New  France,  La  Salle 
was  its  elder  brother.  These  two,  together  with  the  energetic,  far- 
seeing  governor  of  Canada,  the  Count  Frontenac  (1672-1682, 
reappointed  1689-1698),  form  the  trio  who  created  the  French 
power  in  the  New  World,  and  whose  plan  of  empire  building, 
had  it  not  been  thwarted  by  the  narrow  and  bigoted  policy  of 
the  court  of  Versailles,  might  have  made  not  only  the  St.  Law 
rence  and  Mississippi  valleys  but  all  of  America  above  the 
tropics  an  enduring  colony  of  France. 

The  English  colonies  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  occupied  with  107.  The 
their  own  problems  of  developing  their  agricultural  resources,  coStindiifer- 
building  up  their  commerce,  defending  their  precious  rights  of 


self-government  against  king  and  proprietor,  were  slow  to  realize  explorations 
,    .  in  the  West 

the  serious  meaning  of  the  French  power  which  was  gradually 

surrounding  them  in  a  long  chain  of  posts  from  the  mouth  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  Though  by 
their  charters  several  of  the  colonies  extended  to  the  Pacific,  the 
Allegheny  Mountains,  only  a  few  score  miles  from  the  Atlantic 
coast,  actually  formed  a  western  boundary  which  the  colonists 
were  over  a  century  in  reaching,  and  another  half  century  in 
crossing.  When  the  Virginians  were  still  defending  their  tide- 
swept  peninsulas  against  the  Susquehannock  Indians,  and  the 
Carolinians  were  laying  the  foundations  of  their  first  city,  what 
the  French  fur  traders,  missionaries,  and  explorers  were  doing 

1  Returning  to  the  New  World  from  a  visit  to  France,  La  Salle  missed  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  and  landed,  perilously  near  being  shipwrecked,  on  the 
Texan  coast  by  Matagorda.  He  was  treacherously  assassinated  by  some  of  his 
own  party  while  trying  to  reach  Louisiana  through  swamp  and  jungle,  1684. 


90  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

at  the  head  of  the  Great  Lakes  or  along  the  Mississippi  seemed 
too  remote  for  notice. 

108.  Rivalry       There  were  only  three  exceptions  to  this  general  indifference 
sTy  region11    of  the  English  colonies  to  the  progress  of  the  French  in  America 
andAcadia      jn  ^  seventeenth  century.    In  1670  Charles  II  granted  to  a 

number  of  courtiers  and  merchants  the  region  about  Hudson 
Bay,  whose  harbors  made  fine  depots  for  the  Far  Western  fur 
trade.  The  French  had  already  established  fortified  posts  on  the 
bay,  and  for  forty  years  contested  the  region  with  the  English. 
Again,  Port  Royal  in  Acadia  (Nova  Scotia),  the  oldest  permanent 
French  settlement  in  the  New  World  (1604),  was  repeatedly 
attacked  by  the  English,  on  the  ground  that  it  lay  within  the 
bounds  of  the  Virginia  and  New  England  charters.  From  1613 
to  1710  no  less  than  seven  expeditions  were  sent  against  this 
Acadian  stronghold.  The  fighting  around  Hudson  Bay  and  the 
Acadian  peninsula,  however,  was  of  slight  importance  for  the 
possession  of  America  when  compared  with  the  mighty  struggle 
for  the  region  between  the  upper  Hudson  and  the  St.  Lawrence. 

109.  critical       New  York  differed  from  the  other  English  colonies  in  several 
New  York       important  respects.    It  was  not  settled  by  the  English,  but  was 

conquered  by  them  from  the  Dutch.  Its  character  as  a  despoti 
cally  governed  trading  colony  was  already  formed.  It  was  the 
only  English  colony  that  lacked  a  popular  assembly  under  the 
Stuart  dynasty.1  It  was  the  only  one  not  protected  in  the  rear 
by  the  wall  of  the  Alleghenies,  and  hence  the  only  one  that  had 
direct  and  easy  communication  with  the  Iroquois  south  of  the 
Great  Lakes,  and  with  the  French  on  the  St.  Lawrence.  Further 
more,  only  the  year  before  the  Duke  of  York's  fleet  took  New 
Netherland  from  the  Dutch,  Louis  XIV,  just  come  of  age,  had 
taken  the  colony  of  New  France  into  his  own  hands  (1663). 
His  able  minister,  Colbert,  reorganized  the  government,  secur 
ing  bounties  for  trade  and  large  loans  and  gifts  of  money  and 
stores  from  the  king  for  the  French  colonies  in  Canada,  the  West 

1  Except  for  the  years  1683  to  1685,  when  the  Duke  of  York  allowed  his  gov 
ernor,  Dongan,  to  convene  an  assembly. 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America      91 

Indies,  South  America,  and  Africa.  A  royal  governor  was  sent 
to  Canada,  together  with  a  military  commander  and  a  regiment 
of  twelve  hundred  veterans  of  the  European  wars.  The  French 
frontier  was  pushed  down  to  Lake  Champlain,  and  the  new 
governor  was  on  his  way  south  with  five  hundred  men  to  chas 
tise  the  Iroquois,  when  he  heard  that  the  English  had  seized  the 
Hudson.  He  "  returned  in  great  sylence  and  dilligence  toward 
Canada,  declaring  that  the  king  of  England  did  grasp  at  all 
America."  Still  the  commander  wrote  home  to  Colbert  that  it 
was  necessary  for  the  French  to  have  New  York.  It  would  give 
them  an  ice-free  entrance  to  Canada  by  the  Hudson  valley, 
would  break  up  the  English  alliance  with  the  Iroquois,  and 
would  divide  the  English  colonies  in  America  into  a  northern 
and  a  southern  group.  Under  these  circumstances  it  was  not 
strange  that  New  York  should  be  the  colony  most  concerned 
about  the  growth  of  the  French  power,  and  that  it  should  be 
Dongan,  the  Duke  of  York's  governor,  who  first  urged  upon  his 
countrymen  that  to  have  the  French  "  running  all  along  from 
our  lakes  by  the  back  of  Virginia  and  Carolina  to  the  Bay  of 
Mexico  "  might  be  "  very  inconvenient  to  the  English"  (1683). 

So  long  as  the  Stuarts  occupied  the  English  throne,  however,  110.  The  ac- 
their  governors  in  New  York  or  in  any  other  American  colony  iSof  Orange 
received  little  support  against  the  French.    The  royal  brothers,  J^|e°n  war 
Charles  II  and  James  II,  who  basely  accepted  millions  of  pounds  France  and 
from  their  cousin  Louis  XIV  of  France  to  combat  their  own 
parliaments  in  England,  could  not  with  very  good  grace  attack 
King  Louis's  governors  in  America.    But  with  the  expulsion 
of  the  Stuarts  and  the  accession  of  William  of  Orange  to  the 
English  throne,  in  1689,  a  great  change  came,,   William  had  for 
years  been  the  deadly  enemy  of  Louis  XIV  on  account  of  the 
latter's  shameful  attack  on  the  Netherlands  in  i6j2.1   More 
over,  William,  as  the  leading  Protestant  prince  of  Europe,  was 

1  William  of  Orange,  when  he  was  invited  to  the  English  throne  in  1688,  was 
serving  his  seventeenth  year  as  Stadtholder  (or  President)  of  the  Dutch  Repub 
lic  (the  northern  provinces  of  the  Netherlands). 


92  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

the  champion  of  the  reformed  religion,  which  Louis  was  strain 
ing  every  nerve  to  overthrow.  England,  in  a  wave  of  national 
enthusiasm,  rallied  to  William's  support  against  the  absolute 
power  of  France.  A  mighty  struggle  began  between  the  two 
countries  for  the  colonial  and  commercial  supremacy  of  the  world. 
In  the  century  and  a  quarter  that  intervened  between  William's 
accession  and  the  defeat  of  Napoleon  at  Waterloo  (1815),  Eng 
land  and  France  fought  seven  wars,  filling  sixty  years  and  cover 
ing  lands  and  oceans  from  the  forests  of  western  Pennsylvania 
to  the  jungles  of  India,  and  from  the  Caribbean  Sea  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Nile. 

THE  FALL  OF  NEW  FRANCE 

ill.  Indian         Louis  XIV's  governor  in  Canada,  the  wily  old  Count  Fron- 
attacksonthe   A  ,  ..__., 

English  fron-   tenac,  was  only  waiting  for  an  excuse  to  attack  the  English 

tiers,  1689-  settlements  in  New  England  and  New  York.  On  learning  of 
the  outbreak  of  war  between  France  and  England  (1689)  he 
sent  his  bands  of  Indian  allies  against  the  frontier  towns  to  pil 
lage,  burn,  and  massacre.  Dover,  in  the  present  state  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  Schenectady,  in  the  Mohawk  valley,  New 
York,  were  the  scenes  of  frightful  Indian  atrocities.  Even  the 
conclusion  of  peace  between  the  courts  of  London  and  Paris  in 
1698,  and  the  death  of  Frontenac  in  the  same  year,  brought 
only  a  lull  in  these  savage  raids. 

112.  The  In  1701  a  new  war  broke  out  between  the  two  great  rival 

Treaty  of 

Utrecht,  1713  powers.    Louis  XIV,  in  defiance  of  all  Europe,  set  his  grandson 

on  the  vacant  throne  of  Madrid,  thinking  by  the  combined 
strength  of  France  and  Spain  to  crush  out  Protestantism  entirely, 
to  control  the  wealth  of  the  New  World,  to  destroy  England's 
colonial  empire  and  sweep  her  fleets  from  the  ocean.  The  French 
king  failed  in  his  ambitious  plans.  After  repeated  defeats  at  the 
hands  of  Queen  Anne's  great  general,  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,1 

1  King  William  III  died  in  1702,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  sister-in-law,  Anne, 
a  Protestant  daughter  of  James  II.  With  England  in  this  War  of  the  Spanish 
Succession  were  allied  Holland,  Spain,  and  the  German  Empire  (Austria). 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America      93 

he  was  forced  to  conclude  the  humiliating  treaty  of  Utrecht 
(1713),  which  made  England  the  foremost  maritime  power  of 
the  world.1  By  the  clauses  of  the  treaty  that  referred  to  the 
New  World,  France  surrendered  to  England  the  territories  of 
Acadia  (Nova  Scotia),  Newfoundland,  and  Hudson  Bay.  States 
men  in  America  urged  that  England  should  demand  the  whole 
St.  Lawrence  valley  and  free  the  colonies  once  for  all  from  the 
danger  of  the  French  and  Indians  on  the  north.  But  the  mother 
country  was  content  for  the  moment  to  get  a  clear  title  to  re 
gions  which  had  been  in  dispute  for  a  hundred  years,  and  to 
secure  the  undisputed  control  of  the  Iroquois  tribes  in  western 
New  York.  The  French  were  destined  to  hold  the  great  rivers 
of  Canada  for  half  a  century  more. 

The  treaty  of  Utrecht  was  only  a  truce,  after  all,  as  far  as  113.  The 
America  was  concerned,  for  it  decided  nothing  as  to  the  pos- 


session  of  the  vast  territory  west  of  the  Alleghenies.  But  the  Fleuri> 
truce  was  kept  for  many  years,  on  account  of  the  death  of  the 
ambitious  Louis  XIV  (1715)  and  the  rise  to  power  of  the  peace 
fully  disposed  ministers,  Robert  Walpole  in  England  and  Cardi 
nal  Fleuri  in  France.  Till  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
though  Indian  raids  on  the  frontiers,  promoted  by  the  French,  - 
occurred  at  frequent  intervals,  only  one  real  French  war  (King 
George's  War,  1744-1748)  disturbed  the  colonies.2  A  glorious 
exploit  of  the  colonial  troops  in  this  war  was  the  capture  in 
1745  of  the  imposing  fortress  of  Louisburg  on  Cape  Breton 
Island,  guarding  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Colonel  Wil 
liam  Pepperell  of  New  Hampshire  was  in  command  of  the  ex 
pedition,  and  his  army  consisted  almost  wholly  of  troops  voted 
by  the  New  England  legislatures.  The  restoration  of  the  fortress 


1  For  the  full  terms  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  with  map,  see  Robinson  and 
Beard,  Development  of  Modern  Europe,  Vol.  I,  pp.  42-44. 

2  The  names  and  dates  of  the  actual  French  wars  from  the  accession  of  Wil 
liam   III  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  King  William's  War 
(1689-1697),  Queen  Anne's  War  (1702-1713),  and  King  George's  War  (1744— 
1748).   They  were  all  parts  of  general  European  conflicts  (see  Robinson  and 
Beard,  Development  of  Modern  Europe,  Vol.  I,  pp.  28-33,  42~44>  60-68). 


94  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

to  France  in  the  peace  of  1748  created  bitter  feeling  in  the 
breasts  of  the  New  England  yeomen,  who  thought  that  the 
mother  country  underrated  their  sacrifices  and  courage. 

114.  The  During  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  English 
niefwakfto    colonies  grew  more  and  more  alive  to  the  serious  menace  of  the 

the  danger       French  occupation  of  the  land  beyond  the  mountains.    The 

from  the 

French,  1700-   danger,  which  in  the  seventeenth  century  had  seemed  to  threaten 

only  the  New  England  and  the  New  York  frontiers,  extended 
to  the  far  south  when  the  French  governors  of  Louisiana  warned 
English  sailors  away  from  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  (1699) 
and  the  Spaniards  instigated  the  Cherokee  and  Yamassee  Indi 
ans  against  the  Carolinas  (1702).  From  Acadia  to  Florida  came 
voices  of  entreaty  to  the  English  court.  Governor  Bellomont  of 
New  York  urged  the  establishment  of  a  line  of  posts  along  the 
northern  frontier,  since  "  to  pursue  the  Indians  again  and  again 
to  the  forests  was  as  useless  as  chasing  birds."  From  Governor 
Keith  of  Pennsylvania  came  the  request  (1721)  "to  fortify  the 
passes  on  the  back  of  Virginia,"  and  build  forts  on  the  Lakes 
"  to  interrupt  the  French."  Governor  Burnet  of  New  York 
actually  fortified  Oswego  on  Lake  Ontario  at  his  own  expense 
.(1727).  A  few  years  earlier  Spotswood,  the  gallant  governor 
of  Virginia,  had  led  a  party  of  riders  to  the  crest  of  the  Blue 
Ridge,  where,  overlooking  the  beautiful  Shenandoah  valley, 
they  drank  the  healths  of  the  king  and  the  royal  household  in 
costly  wines  and  "  fired  a  volley  "  after  each  bumper.  From 
the  Carolinas  came  anxious  complaints  about  the  new  and  grow 
ing  colony  of  "  Luciana  [Louisiana]  in  Mississippi."  And  soon 
afterwards  Oglethorpe's  colony  of  Georgia  was  planted  as  a 
buffer  state  against  the  Spaniards  in  Florida  and  the  French 
in  the  West  Indies. 

115.  French        The  French  too  were  active.   They  built  forts  at  Crown  Point 
the*ight-n     ancl  Niagara,  put  armed  vessels  on  Lake  Champlain,  occupied 
eenth  century  Detroit  for  the  control  of  Lake  Erie  and  the  portages  to  the 

Ohio  streams,  increased  their  posts  along  the  Mississippi,  and 
pushed  forward  the  settlement  of  Louisiana. 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America      95 


Both  sides  were  waiting  for  the  event  which  was  to  strike  the 
spark  of  war.  That  event  came  when  the  French  and  the  Eng 
lish  at  the  same  moment  moved  to  seize  the  Ohio  valley,  —  the 
French  hoping  to  pen  up  the  English  colonies  in  the  narrow 
strip  of  land  east  of  the  Alleghenies ;  the  English  to  get  elbow- 
room  beyond  the  mountains 
and  control  the  routes  to  the 
Mississippi.  As  Ce'loron  de 
Bienville  dropped  down  the 
Ohio  (1749),  nailing  signs  to 
the  trees  and  burying  lead 
plates  by  the  river  banks,  pro 
claiming  the  land  to  be  the  do 
main  of  Louis  XV  of  France, 
and  Christopher  Gist  followed 
in  his  track  (1750),  selecting 
sites  for  the  settlements  of  the 
Ohio  Company  of  Virginia, 
they  were  the  advance  heralds 
of  the  struggle  between  France 
and  England,  not  only  for  the 
valley  of  the  Ohio  but  for  the 
possession  of  the  continent  of 
North  America. 

The  two  powers   brought 
thus  face  to  face  to  contend 
One  of  Celoron  de  Bienville's  Lead    for  the  mastery   of  America 
Plates,  found  on  the  Banks  of  the    differed   from   each   other  in 
Ohio  _,, 

every  respect.    The  one  was 

Roman  Catholic  in  religion,  absolute  in  government,  a  peo 
ple  of  magnificent  but  impracticable  colonial  enterprises;  the 
other  a  Protestant,  self-governing  people,  strongly  attached  to 
their  homes,  steadily  developing  compact  communities.  There 
was  not  a  printing  press  or  a  public  school  in  Canada,  and  plow 
and  harrow  were  rarer  than  canoe  and  musket.  The  80,000 


116.  The 
Ohio  valley 
the  scene  of 
the  crisis 


117.  Com 
parison  of  the 
French  and 
English  colo 
nies  at  the 
outbreak  of 
the  great  war, 
1754 


96  The  Establishment  of  the  English 

inhabitants  of  New  France  were  overwhelmingly  outnumbered 
by  the  1,300,000  English  colonists.  But  two  facts  compensated 
the  French  for  their  inferiority  in  numbers  :  first,  by  their  forti 
fied  positions  along  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes  and 
at  the  head  of  the  Ohio  valley,  they  compelled  the  English,  if 
they  wished  to  pass  the  Alleghenies,  to  fight  on  French  ground  ; 
secondly,  the  unified  absolute  government  of  New  France  en 
abled  her  to  move  all  her  forces  quickly  under  a  single  com 
mand,  whereas  the  English  colonies,  acting,"  as  Governor  Shirley 
of  Massachusetts  complained,  "like  discordant  semirepublics," 
either  insisted  on  dictating  the  disposition  and  command  of  the 
troops  which  they  furnished,  or  long  refused,  like  New  Jersey 
and  the  colonies  south  of  Virginia,  to  furnish  any  troops  at  all. 
To  make  matters  worse,  the  generals  sent  over  from  England, 
with  few  exceptions,  despised  the  colonial  troops  and  snubbed 
their  officers. 

118.  The  Farseeing  men  like   Governors   Dinwiddie  of  Virginia  and 

of  colonial*11  Shirley  of  Massachusetts  tried  to  effect  some  sort  of  union  of 
union,  1754  fae  colonies  in  the  face  of  the  imminent  danger  from  the  French. 
The  very  summer  that  the  first  shpts  of  the  war  were  fired  (1754) 
a  congress  was  sitting  at  Albany  for  the  discussion  of  better 
intercolonial  relations  and  the  cementing  of  the  Iroquois  alli 
ance.  At  that  congress  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  foremost  man 
in  the  colonies,  proposed  the  scheme  of  union  known  as  the 
Albany  Plan.  A  grand  council  consisting  of  representatives  from 
each  colony  was  to  meet  annually,  to  regulate  Indian  affairs, 
maintain  a  colonial  army,  control  public  lands,  pass  laws  affect 
ing  the  general  good  of  the  colonies,  and  levy  taxes  for  the 
expenses  of  common  undertakings.  A  president  general  chosen 
by  the  king  was  to  have  the  executive  powers  of  appointing 
high  officials  and  of  nominating  the  military  commanders.  He 
might  also  veto  the  acts  of  the  council.  Franklin's  wise  plan, 
however,  found  favor  neither  with  the  colonial  legislatures  nor 
with  the  royal  governors.  To  each  of  them  it  seemed  a  sacrifice 
of  their  rightful  authority ;  so  the  colonies  were  left  without  a 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America      97 

central  directing  power,  to  cooperate  or  not  with  the  king's 
officers,  as  selfish  interests  prompted. 

The  opening  act  of  the  contest  for  the  Ohio  valley  is  of  119.  George 
special  interest  as  introducing  George  Washington  on  the  stage  embassy  to* $ 
of  American  history.    When  the  French  began  to  construct  a  ^nd  the  battle 
chain  of  forts  to  connect  Lake  Erie  with  the  Ohio  River,  Gov-  of  Great 
ernor  Dinwiddie  of  Virginia  sent  Washington,  who  was  then  a  1753-1754 ' 
stalwart  young  surveyor,  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  hardships 
of  forest  travel,  to  warn  the  French  off  of  territory  "  so  notori 
ously  known  to  be  the  property  of  the  crown  of  Great  Britain." 
Washington  faithfully  delivered   his   message   to    the   French 
commanders  at  Venango  and  Fort  Le  Bceuf  in  the  wilds  of  north 
western  Pennsylvania,  and  was  sent  again  the  next  year  (1754) 
to  anticipate  the  French  in  seizing  the  important  position  where 
the  Allegheny  and  Monongahela  rivers  join  to  form  the  Ohio. 
He  clashed  with  a  detachment  of  French  and  Indians  at  Great 
Meadows,  and  there  the  first  shot  was  fired  in  the  great  war 
which  was  to  disturb  three  continents.1   The  French  had  secured 
the  "  forks  of  the  Ohio  "  with  a  strong  fort  (Duquesne),  but 
Washington  erected  Fort  Necessity  near  by,  to  assert  the  claims 
of  England  to  the  region.    His  garrison  was  not  strong  enough, 
however,  to  hold  the  fort,  and  he  was  forced  to  surrender  on 
the  Fourth  of  July,  —  a  day  which  through  his  own  devotion  and 
courage,  a  quarter  of  a  century  later,  was  to  become  forever 
glorious  in  our  history. 

The  war  that  opened  with  the  skirmish  at  Great  Meadows  120.  Brad- 
in  1754  went  badly  for  the  English  in  the  early  years.2   The  dock'sdefeat 

1  This  war,  called  in  Europe  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  in  America  the  French 
and  Indian  War,  was  the  most  tremendous  conflict  of  the  eighteenth  century.    In 
Europe  it  assumed  the  form  of  a  huge  coalition  of  France,  Austria,  Spain,  Russia, 
and  minor  countries  against  Frederick  the  Great  of   Prussia.     England  was 
Frederick's  ally,  and  the  war  brought  her  into  conflict  with  France  for  colonial 
supremacy  in  India  and  America  (see  Robinson  and  Beard,  Development  of 
Modern  Europe,  Vol.  I,  pp.  68,  71). 

2  An  incident  of  these  years,  which  the  poet  Longfellow  in  his  "  Evangeline  " 
has  invested  with  a  pathos  far  beyond  its  real  importance,  was  the  forcible  removal 
of  seven  thousand  French  inhabitants  from  Acadia.     Ever  since  the  Peace  of 
Utrecht,  which  transferred  _Acadia  to  the  English,  the  French  inhabitants  had 


1755 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America      99 

first  regular  British  troops  sent  over,  under  the  command  of 
the  brave  but  rash  General  Braddock,  to  take  Fort  Duquesne, 
were  surprised  and  almost  annihilated  in  the  Pennsylvania  for 
ests  (July,  1755).  Their  French  and  Indian  opponents  fought 
behind  rocks,  trees,  and  bushes,  in  a  kind  of  warfare  utterly 
strange  to  the  European  veterans,  who  were  used  to  beaten 
roads  and  wide  fields  of  battle.  In  the  awful  confusion  Brad- 
dock  fell  with  nearly  a  thousand  of  his  soldiers.  It  was  only 
the  gallant  conduct  of  the  young  Washington,  whose  horse 
was  shot  under  him  twice  and  whose  uniform  was  pierced  with 
bullets,  that  saved  the  retreat  from  utter  rout  and  panic. 

Braddock's  defeat  exposed  the  whole  line  of  frontier  settle-  121.  William 
ments  from  Pennsylvania  to  South  Carolina  to  the  savage  raids  turn  of  the  6 
of  the  Indians ;  while  his  papers,  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  war'  I?57-i759 
French,  revealed  and  frustrated  the  whole  plan  of  the  English 
attacks  on  Niagara  and  the  forts  of  Lake  Champlain.  A  fright 
ful  massacre  of  English  prisoners  at  Fort  William  Henry  on 
Lake  George,  by  the  Indian  allies  of  the  French,  added  to  the 
miseries  of  the  year  1757.  That  same  year,  however,  William 
Pitt,  the  greatest  English  statesman  of  the  eighteenth  century 
and  the  greatest  war  minister  in  all  England's  history,  came  into 
power.  "England  has  been  long  in  labor,"  said  Frederick^  the 
Great  of  Prussia,  "  and  at  last  has  brought  forth  a  man."  Pitt 
was  incorruptible  and  indefatigable,  full  of  confidence  in  Eng 
land's  destiny  as  the  supreme  world  power.  He  immediately 
infused  new  life  into  the  British  armies,  and  fleets  spread  over 
half  the  globe.  Incompetent  commanders  were  removed,  disci 
pline  was  stiffened,  official  thieving  was  stopped.  An  army  of 
22,000  Britishers  was  raised  for  the  war  in  America,  where  the 
colonies,  catching  the  infection  of  Pitt's  tremendous  energy, 

been  in  a  semirebellious  state,  refusing,  under  the  encouragement  of  their  priests, 
to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  "  heretical  "  king  of  England.  British  author 
ity  in  the  province  extended  scarcely  beyond  the  walls  of  the  forts.  On  the  out 
break  of  the  great  war  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  remove  the  French  from  Acadia, 
and  they  were  dispersed  (not  without  cruelty)  among  the  English  colonies  from 
Massachusetts  to  Georgia  (September-October,  1755). 


A  PLAN  oflh^ 


-with  the  Operations  oflhe, 

SIEGE  of  QUEBEC 


4  Squirrel, 

S-  T-rcaw/ior&f  nt'th  Trpv/M  ready  fo 
landing,  after  thettrJ£BafaJk< 


C.^Botyj  tkatrdeceived  t&e  Enemy  and 
"to  wAicA-  tfieJB 


An  O\d  View  of  the  Siege  of  Quebec 

100 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America      101 

voted  money  and  troops  with  lavish  generosity.  In  all,  about 
50,000  troops  were  ready  for  the  fourfold  campaign  of  1758 
against  the  forts  of  Louisburg,  Ticonderoga,  Duquesne,  and 
Niagara.  Everywhere,  except  for  a  momentary  check  at  Ticon 
deroga,  the  British  and  colonial  troops  were  successful ;  the 
lake  forts  fell,  Louisburg  was  recaptured,  and  Fort  Duquesne 
was  rechristened  Fort  Pitt  (Pittsburg)  in  honor  of  the  incom 
parable  war  minister. 

Next  year  came  the  crisis.  Generals  Wolfe  and  Amherst,  the  122.  woife 
heroes  of  Louisburg,  closed  in  upon  the  heart  of  New  France,  ^es  Quebec, 
Wolfe  leading  a  fleet  up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  attack  Quebec, 
and  Amherst  approaching  Montreal  by  the  Hudson  valley. 
After  a  summer  of  excruciating  physical  pain  and  apparent 
military  failure,  Wolfe  conceived  and  executed  a  brilliant  strate 
gic  movement.  On  September  12,  1759,  under  cover  of  a  black 
midnight,  he  embarked  about  3500  picked  men  in  small  boats, 
and  with  muffled  oars  dropped  down  the  river  past  the  French 
sentries  to  a  deserted  spot  on  the  bank  a  little  above  the  city. 
Before  dawn  his  men,  in  single  file,  were  clambering  up  the 
wooded  path  of  a  ravine  in  the  precipitous  bank  to  the  heights 
above  the  river,  where  they  easily  overpowered  the  feeble 
guard.  When  morning  broke  the  astonished  French  com 
mander,  Marquis  Montcalm,  saw  the  red  coats  of  the  British 
soldiers  moving  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham  in  front  of  the  city, 
and  hastened  to  the  attack.  Few  battles  in  history  have  had 
more  important  results  than  the  British  victory  on  the  Plains 
of  Abraham  ;  none  has  been  invested  with  deeper  pathos.  The 
fall  of  Quebec  was  the  doom  of  the  French  empire  in  America. 
But  thoughts  of  victory  and  defeat  are  both  lost  in  the  common 
sacrifice  of  victor  and  vanquished  on  that  day:  Wolfe,  young, 
brave,  accomplished,  tender,  dropping  his  head  in  the  moment 
of  victory  on  the  breast  where  he  wore  the  miniature  of  his 
ladylove  in  far-away  England ;  and  the  courteous,  valorous 
Montcalm,  turning  a  heart  wrung  with  mortal  pain  and  the 
anguish  of  defeat  from  the  last  longing  for  the  chestnut  groves 


102 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


123.  The 


of  his  beloved  chateau  in  France,  to  beg  the  new  master  of  Canada 
to  be  the  protector  of  its  people,  as  he  had  been  their  father.1 

Amherst  took  Mont- 
real  in  1760,  and  in  the 
next  two  years  English 
fleets  completed  the 
downfall  of  France  and 
her  ally  Spain  by  seizing 
the  rich  sugar  islands  of 
the  West  Indies  and  cap 
turing  Havana  in  Cuba 
and  Manila  in  the  Philip 
pines.  Peace  was  signed 
at  Paris  in  1763.  By  its 
terms  France  ceded  to 
England  all  of  Canada 
and  the  region  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  retaining 
only  the  two  insignificant 
islands  of  St.  Pierre  and 
Miquelon  (never  to  be 
fortified)  on  the  coast  of 
Newfoundland  for  dry 
ing  their  fish.  To  her 
ally  Spain,  France  ceded 

New  Orleans  and  the  country  west  of  the  Mississippi.    England 
gave  back  to  France  most  of  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies  ; 

1  In  the  governor's  garden  in  Quebec  stands  the  monument  dedicated  to  these 
two  noble  commanders.  The  inscription  which  it  bears  is  perhaps  the  most  beau 
tiful  expression  of  commemorative  sentiment  in  the  world  : 

MORTEM  VIRTUS  COMMUNEM 

'  FAMAM  HISTORIA 
MONUMENTUM  POSTERITAS 

DEDIT. 
WOLFE  MONTCALM 

("Valor  .gave  them  a  common  death,  history  a  common  fame,  and  posterity  a 
common  monument.") 


The  Wolfe-Montcalm  Monument 


The  Struggle  with  France  for  North  America      103 

and,  while  retaining  Florida,  restored  Havana  and  Manila  to 
Spain,  under  whose  authority  they  were  destined  to  remain  until 
the  Spanish-  American  War  of  1898. 

The  Peace  of  Paris  was  of  immense  importance  to  France,  124.  signif- 


England,  and  America.    For  France  it  meant  (except  for  a  brief 


revival  in  Napoleon's  day)  the  abandonment  of  the  idea  of  a  land,  France, 
J  '  and  America 

colonial  empire  in  North  America.  For  England  it  marked  the 
acme  of  colonial  power,  and  gave  the  promise  of  undisturbed 
empire  in  the  New  Worlu  For  Canada  it  meant  the  breaking 
of  the  unnatural  alliance  with  savages,  and  the  eventual  sub 
stitution  of  free  institutions,  trial  by  jury,  religious  toleration, 
and  individual  enterprise  in  place  of  the  narrow,  paternal  abso 
lutism  of  the  Bourbons.  Finally,  for  the  American  colonies  it 
furnished  the  conditions  for  future  greatness  by  removing  the 
danger  from  organized  Indian  attack  along  the  frontiers,  and 
opening  the  great  territory  west  of  the  Alleghenies  to  the  hardy 
pioneers  and  woodsmen  who,  from  the  crests  of  the  mountains, 
were  already  gazing  into  the  promised  land. 


REFERENCES 

The  Rise  of  New  France :  W.  L.  GRANT,  The  Voyages  of  Samuel  de 
Champlain  (Original  Narratives  of  Early  American  History) ;  FRANCIS 
PARKMAN,  The  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World,  La  Salle  and  the 
Discovery  of  the  Great  West,  The  Old  Regime  in  Canada;  JUSTIN  WINSOR, 
Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,  Vol.  IV,  chaps,  iii-vii ;  Cartier 
to  Frontenac;  R.  G.  THWAITES,  France  in  America  (American  Nation 
Series),  chaps,  i-v;  Cambridge  Modern  History,  Vol.  VIII,  chap.  iii. 

The  Fall  of  New  France :  PARKMAN,  A  Half  Century  of  Conflict,  Mont- 
calm  and  Wolfe;  THWAITES,  chaps,  vi-xvii ;  EDW.  CHANNING,  History 
of  the  United  States,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xvii-xix ;  WINSOR,  Narrative  and 
Critical  History  of  America,  Vol.  V,  chaps,  vii,  viii;  Cambridge  Modern 
History,  Vol.  VII,  chap,  iv  ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Con 
temporaries,  Vol.  II,  Nos.  117-129;  JOHN  FISKE,  Essays  Historical  and 
Literary,  Vol.  II,  chap,  iii ;  J.  A.  DOYLE,  English  Colonies  in  America, 
Vol.  V,  chap.  ix. 


IO4 


The  Establishment  of  the  English 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 


i  The  Development  of  Louisiana:  WINSOR,  Vol.  V,  pp.  13-51 5  PARK- 
MAN,  A  Half  Century  of  Conflict,  pp.  288-315  5  CHANNING,  Vol.  II,  pp. 

5322~SThe  Albany  Plan  of  Union:  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  9  ;  THWAITES, 
pp.  ^68-172  ;  WOODROW  WILSON,  History  of  the  American  People,  Vol. 

II>  PP-  342~35^- 

7    George  Washington's  Embassy  to  the  French  Forts:   PARKMAN, 

Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  Vol.  I,  pp.  128-161;  WINSOR,  Vol.  V  pp.  490- 
494;  THWAITES,  pp.  157-165;  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  187  ;  A.  B. 
HURLBERT,  Washington's  Road  (Historic  Highways  Series),  pp.  85-119- 

4  The  Removal  of  the  Acadians:  PARKMAN,  A  Half  Century  of  Con 
flict,  Vol.  I,  pp.  183-203;  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  Vol.  I,  pp.  234-285; 
HART  Vol.  II,  No.  126;  WINSOR,  Vol.  V,  pp.  415-418,  452~463- 

c  The  French  Explorers  on  the  Great  Lakes:  THWAITES,  pp.  34-48 ; 
WINSOR,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  163-196;  PARKMAN,  La  Salic  and  the  Discovery 
of  the  Great  West,  pp.  1-47- 

6  Paternal  Government  in  Canada:  PARKMAN,  The  Old  Regime  tn 
Canada,  pp.  257-281  ;  THWAITES,  pp.  124-143  5  Cambridge  Modern  His 
tory,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  79~87>  102-109. 


PART  II.  SEPARATION  OF  THE 
COLONIES  FROM  ENGLAND 


PART  II.    SEPARATION  OF  THE 
COLONIES  FROM  ENGLAND 

CHAPTER  IV 

BRITISH  RULE  IN  AMERICA 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  PARLIAMENT  IN  THE  COLONIES 

The  curtain  had  hardly  fallen  on  the  first  act  of  American  125.  conflict- 
history,  the  establishment  and  triumph  of  the  English  race  in 


the  New  World,  when  it  rose  on  a  second  act,  short  but  intense,  can  Revoiu- 

tion 
namely  the  American  Revolution,  which  severed  the  colonies  from 

England  and  admitted  to  the  family  of  nations  the  new  republic 
of  the  United  States.  This  great  event  has  too  often  been  rep 
resented  as  the  unanimous  uprising  of  a  downtrodden  people  to 
repel  the  deliberate,  unprovoked  attack  of  a  tyrant  upon  their 
liberties  ;  but  when  thousands  of  people  in  the  colonies  could 
agree  with  a  noted  lawyer  of  Massachusetts,  that  the  Revolution 
was  a  "  causeless,  wanton,  wicked  rebellion,"  and  thousands  of 
people  in  England  could  applaud  Pitt's  denunciation  of  the  war 
against  America  as  "  barbarous,  unjust,  and  diabolical,"  it  is 
evident  that,  at  the  time  at  least,  there  were  two  opinions  as  to 
colonial  rights  and  British  oppression.  We  can  rightly  under 
stand  the  American  Revolution  only  by  a  study  of  British  rule 
in  the  colonies. 

The  first  English  emigrants  to  these  shores  brought  with  them,  126.  The 
by  the  terms  of  their  charters,  for  themselves  and  their  posterity,  ri^JS^o"* 
"all  the  liberties  ...  of  free-born  Englishmen  and  native  sub-  Englishmen 
jects  of  the  king,  just  as  if  they  had  been  born  or  had  remained 

107 


IO8        Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

in  England  itself."  Those  liberties,  for  which  their  ancestors  had 
been  struggling  for  five  hundred  years,  consisted  in  the  right  to 
protection  of  life  and  property,  a  fair  trial  and  judgment  by 
one's  peers,  participation  in  local  self-government,  freedom  of 
movement,  occupation,  and  trade,  and,  above  all,  the  privilege, 
through  the  representatives  of  the  kingdom  in  Parliament,  to 
grant  the  king  the  moneys  needed  for  foreign  war  and  the  sup 
port  of  the  state.  In  many  a  contest  for  those  rights  with  head 
strong  kings  and  cruel  or  worthless  ministers  of  state,  the  English 
nobles  and  commoners  had  won  the  victory.  The  American 
colonists  cherished  these  "  immemorial  rights  of  Englishmen  " 
with  what  Edmund  Burke  called  a  "  fierce  spirit  of  liberty."  A 
goodly  number  of  the  colonists  had  come  to  these  shores  for 
the  express  purpose  of  enjoying  political  and  religious  liberty. 
They  had  created  democratic  governments  in  the  New  World, 
and  the  three  thousand  miles  of  ocean  that  rolled  between  them 
and  the  mother  country  necessarily  increased  their  spirit  of  self- 
reliance.  While  acknowledging  allegiance  to  the  king  of  Eng 
land,  their  actual  connection  with  the  English  government  was 
very  slight.  The  attempt  on  the  part  of  English  ministers  to 
make  that  connection  closer  revealed  how  far  the  colonies  were 
separated  from  the  mother  country  in  spirit,  and  led  inevitably 
to  their  separation  in  fact. 

127.  causes        At  the  bottom  of  the  misunderstanding  between  the  colonies 
of  conflict  be 
tween  Eng-     and  the  mother  country  were  two  developments  in  English  his- 

tory  wnicn  to°k  Place  mainly  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
first  was  the  growth  of  the  mercantile  theory  of  trade.  We 
have  already  noted  (p.  67)  how  this  theory  caused  the  European 
nations  to  regard  their  colonies  as  mere  sources  of  profit,  and 
how  the  English  Navigation  Acts  crippled  the  trade  and  manu 
facture  of  America.  A  striking  example  of  the  mischief  done 
to  colonial  trade  by  this  selfish,  mistaken  policy  is  the  famous 
Sugar  and  Molasses  Act  of  1733.  Barbados,  Jamaica,  San  Do 
mingo,  and  other  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  belonging  to  Eng 
land,  France,  Holland,  and  Spain,  produced  immense  quantities 


British  Rule  in  America  109 

of  sugar.  The  entire  acreage  of  these  islands  was  given  over  to 
sugar  plantations,  while  all  the  necessities  of  life  were  imported. 
The  American  colonies,  being  near  at  hand,  sent  large  supplies 
of  fish,  corn,  wheat,  flour,  oil,  soap,  and  lumber  to  the  islands, 
and  from  this  trade  realized  most  of  the  gold  needed  to  pay  for 
their  imported  garments,  hats,  shoes,  iron,  and  other  manufac 
tured  goods,  which  England  forbade  them  to  make  for  them 
selves.  In  order  to  "  starve  out "  the  French  and  Spanish 
colonists  of  the  West  Indies,  the  English  sugar  planters  of 
Barbados  and  Jamaica,  who  sold  great  quantities  of  molasses 
to  the  New  England  colonies,  asked  the  home  government  to 
forbid  the  colonies  of  the  American  mainland  to  trade  with 
any  foreign  power  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Parlia 
ment  yielded  to  their  demands,  and  so  forced  the  colonies  to 
buy  their  molasses  of  the  British  planters,  who,  freed  from  com 
petition,  could  levy  as  high  an  export  duty  as  they  pleased. 

The  colonies  were  naturally  aggrieved  at  such  treatment.  128.  The 
They  resented  being  burdened  and  restrained  in  their  trade  in  J^ts  a^n- 

order  to  make  another  part  of  the  British  Empire  prosperous,  stant  menace 

to  the  colonies 
Their  sentiment  was  that  expressed  by  a  brave  governor  of 

Massachusetts  in  Charles  II's  time,  when  he  was  reproved  for 
not  enforcing  the  Navigation  Acts :  "  The  king  can  in  reason 
do  no  less  than  let  us  enjoy  our  liberties  and  trade,  for  we 
have  made  this  large  plantation  [colony]  of  our  own  charge, 
without  any  contribution  from  the  crown."  That  a  prosper 
ous  illicit  trade  flourished,  and  that  English  ministers  like  Wai- 
pole  winked  at  the  infringement  of  the  Navigation  Acts,  was 
small  comfort  to  the  colonies.  There  the  ugly  laws  stood  on 
the  statute  book,  and  at  any  moment  a  minister  might  come 
into  power  who  would  think  it  good  policy  or  his  bounden  duty 
to  enforce  them. 

The  second  disturbing  element  in  the  relation  of  England  to  129.  The  re- 
the  colonies  was  the  question  of  the  supremacy  of  Parliament.  Joi^es  to  ° 
The  colonies  (except  Georgia)  had  been  settled  under  grants  Parliament 
not  from  Parliament  but  from  the  Stuart  kings.    The  colonial 


1 10         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

assemblies  passed  laws,  levied  taxes,  voted  supplies,  and  raised 
troops  for  their  own  defense,  just  like  the  Parliament  of  Eng 
land.  Their  affairs,  in  so  far  as  they  concerned  the  mother 
country,  were  in  the  hands  of  a  committee  of  the  king's  privy 
councilors.  But  with  the  overthrow  of  the  Stuarts  in  1688  the 
position  of  king  and  Parliament  was  reversed.  The  king  himself 
became  practically  a  subject  of  Parliament,  whose  authority  and 
sovereignty  grew  continually  stronger  as  the  eighteenth  century 
advanced.  The  first  kings  of  the  Hanoverian  dynasty,  which 
succeeded  the  Stuarts  on  the  English  throne,  recognized  this 
change.  For  example,  in  1624  the  Stuart  James  I  had  snubbed 
Parliament  when  it  attempted  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Vir 
ginia,  telling  the  House  of  Commons  to  attend  to  its  own  busi 
ness  and  keep  its  hands  off  his  domains  ;  a  century  later  (1720) 
the  Hanoverian  George  I  instructed  his  governor  in  Massachu 
setts  to  warn  the  inhabitants  that  in  case  of  misbehavior  their 
conduct  would  be  brought  to  the  notice  of  Parliament.  Further 
more,  Parliament  actually  assumed  many  powers  of  sovereignty 
in  America  in  the  eighteenth  century.  It  granted  the  charter  of 
Georgia,  it  regulated  the  colonial  currency,  it  made  naturaliza 
tion  laws,  it  established  a  colonial  post  office.  When  the  Stuart 
kings  yielded  to  the  power  of  Parliament,  it  was  useless  for  the 
colonies  to  plead  the  authority  of  their  Stuart  charters  in  oppo 
sition  to  Parliament.  Clearly,  unless  the  colonies  were  aiming 
at  independence  —  a  charge  which  they  indignantly  denied  up  to 
the  very  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  War  —  they  were  subject 
to  the  sovereign  power  of  England,  namely  the  Parliament. 
130.  causes  During  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  many  colonial 
between  the  governors  and  high  officials  wished  to  see  the  authority  of  Par- 
the°mothTrd  liament  established  beyond  question  in  the  American  colonies. 

country,        Such  measures  as  the  abolition  of  the  New  England  charters, 
1700-1750 

the  union  of  the  colonies  under  a  single  governor,  the  im 
position  of  a  direct  tax  by  Parliament,  and  even  the  creation 
of  an  American  nobility  were  recommended.  But  so  long  as 
the  practical,  peace-loving  Walpole  and  the  ardent  patriot  Pitt 


British  Rule  in  America  III 

held  the  reins  of  government  in  England,  no  such  irritation  of 
the  colonial  spirit  of  independence  was  attempted.  There  were 
enough  causes  of  friction,  as  it  was,  between  the  colonies  and 
the  mother  country.  Incompetent  and  arbitrary  governors  were 
often  appointed,  who  quarreled  continually  with  the  colonial 
assemblies  over  salaries,  fees,  and  appointments.  The  crown, 
although  it  had  ceased  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  to  veto  acts  of  Parliament,  continued  to  veto  acts  of  the 
colonial  legislatures.  These  vetoes  were  sometimes  prompted  by 
the  most  selfish  and  unworthy  motives,  as  when  statutes  of  Vir 
ginia  in  restraint  of  the  slave  trade  were  annulled  by  the  crown 
because  of  the  heavy  profits  which  the  English  courtiers  were 
reaping  from  that  infamous  business.  The  scornful  treatment 
of  colonial  officers  and  troops  by  the  British  regulars,  in  the 
French  wars ;  the  increasing  severity  of  the  Navigation  Acts ; 
the  persistent  efforts  of  a  group  of  high  churchmen  to  establish 
the  Anglican  Church  and  an  Anglican  bishop  in  America ;  the 
neglect  of  the  home  government  to  interest  itself  at  all  in  the 
colonies  except  for  the  purpose  of  restraint  or  punishment,  —  all 
contributed  to  a  spirit  of  wary  self-defense  and  proud  self-suffi 
ciency,  which  observant  men  on  both  sides  of  the  water  said  was 
developing  into  a  desire  for  independence. 

Samuel  Adams  in  his  commencement  oration  of  1743  at  131.  Rumors 
Harvard  College,  in  the  presence  of  the  royal  governor  of  Mas-  revolt01"*1 
sachusetts  .and  his  retinue,  dared  to  discuss  the  question  of 
"  whether  it  was  lawful  to  resist  rulers  in  time  of  oppression." 
The  Swedish  traveler  Peter  Kalm,  who  visited  this  country  in 
1748-1750,  thought  that  the  presence  of  the  French  in  Canada 
was  "  the  chief  power  that  urged  the  colonies  to  submission." 
Many  French  statesmen  comforted  themselves  for  the  loss  of 
Canada  by  the  thought  that  England  "  would  repent  having  re 
moved  the  only  check  on  her  colonies,"  which  would  "  shake  off 
dependence  the  moment  Canada  was  ceded."  There  were  even 
British  statesmen  who  urged  that  England  should  keep  Guade 
loupe,  in  the  West  Indies,  at  the  peace  of  1763,  and  leave  the 


112         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

French  undisturbed  in  Canada,  "  in  order  to  secure  the  depend 
ence  of  the  colonies  on  the  mother  c'ountry." 

132.  The  The  existence  of  such  sentiment  before  the  enactment  of  a 
British  roio-    single  oppressive  measure  by  the  British  Parliament,  or  any 

niai  policy  in   specific  act  of  rebellion  on  the  part  of  the  American  colonies, 

the  eight" 

eenth  century  shows  what  a  wretched  failure  England  had  made  of  her  colonial 

government  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  amply  justifies  the  re 
mark  of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  that  the  American  Revolution  was 
"  a  revolt  against  the  whole  mental  attitude  of  Britain  in  regard 
to  America,  rather  than  against  any  one  special  act  or  set  of  acts." 

TAXATION  WITHOUT  REPRESENTATION 

133.  The  "  Special  acts  and  sets  of  acts,"  however,  came  in  abundance 
Em$re            after  the  Peace  of  Z763-   Great  Britain  by  her  victories  over  the 

French  in  both  hemispheres  had  become  a  great  empire.  But 
the  cost  had  been  great,  too.  The  national  debt  had  increased 
from  ^70,000,000  to  ^140,000,000.  The  British  statesmen 
therefore  began  to  devise  plans  for  bringing  the  parts  of  the 
empire  more  closely  together  and  making  each  contribute  its  fair 
share  toward  carrying  the  increased  burden  of  the  imperial  debt. 

134.  Gren-          Early  in  1764  George  Grenville,  prime  minister  of  England/ 
theVaviga-     g°t  through  Parliament  the  first  of  a  series  of  measures  for  the 
tion  Acts,  1764  cioser  control  of  the  American  colonies.    The  Navigation  Acts, 

especially  the  odious  Sugar  and  Molasses  Act  of  1733,  were  to 
be  strictly  enforced,  and  all  commanders  of  British  frigates  in 
American  waters  were  to  have  the  right  of  acting  as  customs 
officers,  employing  the  hated  Writs  of  Assistance,  or  general 
warrants  to  search  a  man's  private  premises  for  smuggled  goods.1 
The  merchants  of  New  England  saw  ruin  staring  them  in  the 
face  if  the  Navigation  Acts  were  enforced.  Massachusetts  alone 
had  imported  15,000  hogsheads  of  molasses2  from  the  French 

1  Against  these  writs  the  Boston  lawyer  James  Otis  had  pleaded  so  vehe 
mently  three  years  earlier  that  John  Adams  called  his  speech  the  opening  act  of 
the  American  Revolution. 

2  Destined  for  the  most  part,  unfortunately,  to  be  made  into  rum  for  the 
African  negro. 


British  Rule  in  America  113 

West  Indies  in  1763,  and  the  hundreds  of  ships  launched  every 
year  from  the  colonial  yards  were  earning  by  their  illegal  foreign 
trade  the  millions  which  had  to  be  paid  yearly  for  imported 
British  manufactured  goods. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  Navigation  Acts  were  renewed  135.  The 
Grenville  gave  notice  that  he  intended  to  lay  a  tax  on  the  colo-  proposed 
nies  to  help  defray  the  expense  of  a  small  standing  army  in  Grenville 
America.  The  proposal  seemed  reasonable  and  necessary,  for 
at  that  very  moment  English  troops  west  of  the  Alleghenies 
were  engaged  in  the  serious  business  of  quelling  an  Indian  up 
rising,  headed  by  the  Ottawa  chief  Pontiac,  who,  not  accepting 
the  peace  of  1763,  had  united  all  the  tribes  from  the  Illini  to 
the  Senecas  in  a  last  determined  effort  to  keep  the  English  out 
of  the  Ohio  valley.  Eveiy  cent  of  the  money  which  the  ministry 
proposed  to  raise  in  America  was  to  be  spent  in  America,  and 
the  colonies  were  to  be  asked  to  contribute  only  about  a  third 
of  the  sum  necessary.  Furthermore,  Grenville,  who  had  abso 
lutely  no  wish  to  oppress  or  offend  the  colonies,  was  willing 
to  assess  the  tax  in  the  way  most  acceptable  to  the  Americans. 
He  himself  proposed  a  stamp  tax,  which  required  that  all  official 
and  public  documents,  such  as  wills,  deeds,  mortgages,  notes, 
newspapers,  pamphlets,  should  be  written  on  stamped  paper  or 
provided  with  stamps  sold  by  the  distributing  agents  of  the 
British  government;  but  at  the  same  time  he  invited  the 
colonial  agents  in  London  and  influential  men  in  the  colonies 
to  suggest  any  other  form  of  taxation  which  appeared  to  them 
more  suitable,  and  postponed  definite  action  in  the  matter  for 
a  year. 

No  other  plan  was  proposed,  and  in  March,  1765,  the  Stamp  136.  passage 
Act  was  passed  with  very  little  discussion,  in  a  half-filled  Parlia-  Jctf 
ment,  by  a  vote  of  205  to  49.    Distributors  of  stamped  paper 
were  appointed  for  the  colonies,  Benjamin  Franklin  even  solicit 
ing  the  position  in  Pennsylvania  for  one  of  his  friends.    The 
British  ministry  anticipated  no  resistance  to  the  act,  which  was 
to  go  into  effect  the  first  of  November. 


114         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

137.  Patrick        However,  the  Stamp  Act  met  with  furious  opposition  in  the 
lutions   r    '    colonies.    A  young  lawyer  named  Patrick  Henry  had  just  been 

elected  to  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  as  a  reward  for  his 
brave  speech  in  the  "  Parsons'  Cause  "  (a  law  case  in  which  he 
denied  the  right  of  King  George  to  veto  the  statutes  passed  by 
the  Virginia  legislature).  On  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  passage 
of  the  Stamp  Act,  Henry  waited  impatiently  in  his  seat  for  the 
older  and  more  influential  members  of  the  House  to  protest. 
Then  toward  the  end  of  the  session  he  rose,  and  in  an  impas 
sioned  speech  which  drew  from  some 
members  of  the  House  the  cry  of 
"  treason  ! "  he  presented  and  carried 
through  the  Assembly  resolutions  to  the 
effect  that  "  the  General  Assembly  of 
this  colony  .  .  .  have  in  their  representa 
tive  capacity  the  only  exclusive  right  and 
power  to  lay  taxes  and  imposts  upon 
the  inhabitants  of  this  colony ;  and  that 

A  British  Stamp"       ™^  attemPt  tO  rCSt  SUch  Power  on  anY 
other  person  or  persons  ...  is  illegal, 

unconstitutional,  and  unjust,  and  has  a  manifest  tendency  to 
destroy  British  as  well  as  American  liberty." 

138.  violent        Henry's  speech  and  resolutions  stirred  up  great  excitement 
the  stamp  Act  in  the  colonies.  James  Otis  of  Massachusetts  suggested  a  general 

meeting  of  committees  from  all  the  colonies  to  protest  against 
this  new  and  dangerous  assault  on  colonial  liberties.  A  writer 
in  the  New  York  Gazette,  under  the  name  of  "  Freeman,"  went 
so  far  as  to  suggest  separation  from  the  British  Empire.  When 
the  stamp  distributors  were  appointed  late  in  the  summer,  they 
became  the  immediate  objects  of  obloquy  and  persecution 
throughout  the  colonies;  and  before  the  first  of  November 
every  one  of  them  had  been  persuaded  or  forced  to  resign. 
There  was  rioting  in  every  New  England  colony  as  well  as  in 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  In  Boston  the  mob  hanged  the 
distributor,  Oliver,  in  effigy,  destroyed  the  building  which  he 


British  Ride  in  America  1 1 5 

intended  to  use  for  his  office,  and  shamefully  wrecked  the  mag 
nificent  house  of  Lieutenant  Governor  Hutchinson,1  who,  as 
chief  justice  of  the  province,  had  given  the  decision  in  favor  of 
the  employment  of  Writs  of  Assistance  in  1761. 

The  congress  suggested  by  Otis  met  at  New  York  in  October,  139.  The 
with  twenty-seven  members  from  nine  colonies.    It  published  a  con'gress^  1765 
"  Declaration  of  Grievances,"  denied  the  legality  of  any  taxes 
but  those  levied  by  their  representative  assemblies,  and  sent 
separate  addresses  to  the  king  and  both  Houses  of  Parliament. 
These  first  state  papers  of  the  assembled  colonies  were  dignified, 
able,  cogent  remonstrances  against  the  disturbance  of  sacred 
and  long-enjoyed  rights. 

The  British  Parliament  had,  by  the  Stamp  Act,  undoubtedly  140.  why 
usurped  the  most  precious  right  of  the  colonists,  that  of  voting  s^e^the~ 
their  own  taxes.  By  one  stroke  of  the  pen  it  had  reduced  their  stamP  Act 
assemblies  to  impotent  bodies  and  made  their  charters  void. 
The  chief  safeguard  of  their  liberties,  the  control  of  the  purse 
strings  of  the  province,  was  gone.  It  was  all  right  for  Parliament 
to  regulate  their  foreign  commerce,  they  said  ;  but  taxes  to  men 
of  English  descent  meant  the  free  grant  of  money  to  the  king  by 
the  representatives  of  the  people  in  Parliament  assembled.  Their 
own  colonial  legislatures  stood  in  the  place  of  Parliament,  since 
they  had  no  part  in  the  parliament  convened  at  Westminster. 
When  the  British  statesmen  argued  that  the  colonies  were  "  vir 
tually  represented  "  in  Parliament,  because  all  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons  represented  all  the  British  subjects  except 
the  nobles  and  the  clergy,  the  colonists  failed  to  follow  the 
reasoning.  They  knew  they  had  no  voice  in  the  elections  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  a  "  representative  "  to  them  meant  a 
man  whom  they  knew  and  had  voted  for.  As  well  tell  a  Vir 
ginian  that  he  was  "  represented  "  in  the  assembly  of  New  York 
as  that  he  was  represented  in  the  British  Parliament ! 

1  Hutchinson's  fine  library  sacked  and  the  books  scattered  in  the  gutters.  The 
manuscript  of  his  invaluable  work  on  the  history  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  colony 
was  rescued  from  the  mud  of  the  street.  It  is  now  in  the  historical  museum  in 
the  Statehouse  at  Boston,  the  mud  stains  still  visible  on  its  rumpled  edges. 


Ii6         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

141.  The  re-  The  violent  and  unexpected  resistance  to  the  Stamp  Act  in 
stamp  let,  America  woke  the  British  government  to  the  seriousness  of  the 
colonial  problem.  Grenville  had  been  superseded  (July,  1765) 
as  prime  minister  by  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  a  liberal  Whig 
statesman,  opposed  to  the  coercion  of  the  American  colonies. 
The  Rockingham  ministry  moved  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act 
early  in  1766,  and  on  the  fourth  of  March,  after  the  fiercest 
battle  of  the  century  in  the  halls  of  Parliament,  the  motion  was 
carried.  The  hated  Stamp  Act  had  been  on  the  British  statute 


The  Funeral  Procession  of  the  Stamp  Act 
From  an  old  print 

book  less  than  a  year,  and  had  not  been  enforced  in  a  single 
American  town ;  yet  its  repeal  was  hailed  in  the  colonies  by  as 
joyful  a  demonstration  as  could  have  greeted  the  deliverance 
from  ages  of  cruel  oppression.  The  British  ministers  might  have 
learned  from  both  the  passionate  protests  of  1765  and  the  pro 
fuse  gratitude  of  1766  what  a  sensitive  spirit  of  liberty  they  had 
to  deal  with  in  America.  But  less  than  a  year  after  the  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act  they  began  to  set  new  mischief  afoot 

In  July,  1766,  the  Rockingham  ministry  fell.   William  Pitt, 
the  creator  of  England's  colonial  empire,  the  stanch  friend  of 


British  Rule  in  America  117 

America  and  the  idol  of  the  American  people,  should  have  taken  142.  The  re- 
the  reins  of  government  and  guided  the  state  to  peace.    But  a 


personal  difference  of  opinion  with  another  Whig  statesman  un-  J?66 
fortunately  kept  Pitt  from  accepting  the  direction  of  the  govern 
ment  at  this  critical  moment.  At  the  same  time  Pitt  accepted 
a  peerage  and  entered  the  House  of  Lords  as  the  Earl  of  Chat 
ham,  a  step  which  weakened  his  influence  with  the  great  mass 
of  English  commoners.  And  to  crown  the  misfortune  for  the 
cause  of  America,  failing  health  removed  the  great  statesman 
from  the  activities  of  the  cabinet  almost  entirely. 

In  the  absence  of  Chatham  and  owing  to  the  incapacity  of  143.  The 
the  prime  minister,  the  direction  of  the  policy  of  the  British  gov-  Active 
ernment  was  assumed  by  the  abnormally  gifted  but  vain  and 
flighty  Charles  Townshend,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  or  min 
ister  of  finance.  Without  the  consent  or  even  the  knowledge  of 
his  fellow  ministers,  Townshend  had  the  audacity,  early  in  1767, 
to  introduce  into  Parliament  new  measures  for  raising  revenue 
in  America.  Chatham  was  not  there  to  protest,  and  the  meas 
ures  were  carried.  They  provided  that  revenue  cases  in  Amer 
ica  should  be  tried  in  courts  without  a  jury,  declared  Writs  of 
Assistance  valid,  released  colonial  judges  and  governors  from 
dependence  on  their  assemblies  for  their  salaries,  provided  for 
commissioners  of  customs  to  reside  in  the  American  ports,  and, 
for  the  maintenance  of  this  "  American  establishment,"  levied 
considerable  duties  on  tea,  glass,  wine,  oil,  paper,  and  painter's 
colors  imported  into  the  colonies. 

Again  the  response  of  the  colonies  was  quick  and  clear  :  Eng-  144.  Re- 
land  must  not  destroy  the  chartered  privileges  of  the  colonies 


or  invade  the  immemorial  rights  of  British  freemen.    The  town  colonies, 

1768-1770 
meeting  of  Boston  declared  against  importing  any  English  goods 

under  the  new  duties.  The  ardent  Samuel  Adams,  after  pre 
paring  an  address  to  the  British  ministry,  to  Chatham,  and  to 
Rockingham,  drew  up  a  circular  letter  to  the  other  colonies, 
which  elicited  expressions  of  sympathy  from  New  Hampshire, 
Virginia,  New  Jersey,  Connecticut,  and  South  Carolina.  The 


n8         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

British  minister  for  the  colonies  ordered  the  Massachusetts  leg 
islature  to  rescind  the  circular  letter,  as  being  of  a  "  dangerous 
and  factious  tendency,"  but  the  legislature  flatly  refused  by  a 
vote  of  ninety-two  to  seventeen.  Whereupon  two  regiments  of 
British  troops  were  sent  from  Halifax  to  Boston,  and  landed 
under  the  protection  of  the  guns  of  the  warships  which  had 
brought  them  (September  28,  1768).  Virginia  stood  side  by  side 
with  Massachusetts  in  resisting  the  Townshend  Acts.  George 
Washington  and  Patrick  Henry  were  prominent  in  the  adoption 
of  resolutions  by  the  Burgesses  condemning  the  taxes  and  main 
taining  the  right  of  the  colonies  to  unite  in  petition  to  the  crown. 
The  boycott  of  English  goods  was  effective,  colonial  importations 
falling  off  from  ,£2,378,000  in  1768  to  ,£1,634,000  in  1769. 
The  Townshend  duties,  instead  of  yielding  the  ,£40,000  a  year 
that  their  author  boasted  to  Parliament  they  would,  produced 
only  some  ;£i  6,000  during  the  three  years  they  were  in  opera 
tion,  a  sum  which  it  cost  the  government  ,£200,000  to  collect. 

145.  The  But  the  total  failure  of  the  Townshend  legislation  to  produce 

"  Boston  Mas-  ,    .  ,.-.  ,„,       ,  .          £     ..  ,  .  , 

sacre,"  1770      a  revenue  was  not  its  worst  effect.    Ihe  bitter  feelings  which 

the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  had  allayed  were  roused  again  in 
the  colonies.  The  presence  of  the  British  regiments  in  Boston 
was  a  constant  source  of  chagrin  to  the  inhabitants.  It  seemed 
to  fix  the  stigma  of  rebellion  on  the  province.  The  soldiers 
were  insulted  and  baited  by  street  crowds,  who  followed  them 
with  jeering  cries  of  "  ruffians  !  "  and  "  lobster  backs  !  "  On  the 
fifth  of  March,  1770,  an  affray  occurred  in  King  Street  (now 
State  Street)  in  which  the  irritated  soldiers  fired  into  the  crowd, 
killing  five  citizens  and  wounding  several  others.  This  "  Boston 
Massacre  "  was  the  signal  for  the  wildest  excitement.  A  town 
meeting  was  called  at  once  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and  Samuel  Adams, 
proceeding  as  its  delegate  to  the  town  house,  demanded  of  act 
ing  Governor  Hutchinson  the  immediate  removal  of  both  the 
regiments  from  the  town.  Hutchinson  hesitated;  but  Adams, 
rising  to  his  full  height  and  extending  a  threatening  arm  toward 
the  governor,  cried :  "  There  are  three  thousand  people  yonder 


British  Rule  in  America  1 19 

in  the  town  meeting,  and  the  country  is  rising ;  night  is  coming 
on,  and  we  must  have  our  answer."    The  governor  yielded. 

Meanwhile  the  storm  of  protests  from  the  colonies  and  the  146.  The 
fervent  petitions  of  English  merchants,  who  were  being  ruined  pa 
by  the  American  boycott,  led  Parliament  to  repeal  the  Towns-  ber»  *773 
hend  duties  as  it  had  the  Stamp  Act.    In  January,  1770,  Lord 


The  Boston  Massacre 
From  Paul  Revere's  engraving 

North  became  prime  minister,  and  on  the  very  day  of  the  Boston 
Massacre  moved  to  repeal  all  the  duties  except  a  trifling  tax  of 
threepence  a  pound  on  tea.  King  George  III,  in  whose  hands 
Lord  North  was  a  man  of  clay,  insisted  that  the  tax  on  tea  be 
kept  for  the  sake  of  asserting  the  right  of  Parliament  to  control 
the  colonies.  The  king  thought  that  by  a  smart  trick  he  could 


I2O         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

ensnare  the  colonies  into  buying  the  tea  and  paying  the  tax. 
He  got  his  compliant  Parliament  to  allow  the  East  India  Com 
pany  to  sell  its  tea  in  America  without  paying  the  heavy  English 
duty.  Thus  relieved  of  duties,  the  Company  offered  its  tea  to 
the  colonists  at  a  lower  price,  including  the  tax  of  threepence  a 
pound,  than  they  were  paying  for  the  same  article  smuggled 
from  Holland.  But  the  colonies  were  not  to  be  bribed  to  pay 
a  tax  which  they  had  refused  to  be  forced  to  pay.  The  cargoes 
of  tea  which  the  East  India  Company's  ships  brought  over  to 
•  American  ports  were  rudely  received.  Philadelphia  and  New 
York  refused  to  let  the  ships  land.  The  authorities  at  Charles 
ton  stored  the  tea  in  damp  cellars  where  it  spoiled.  And  in 
Boston,  after  vainly  petitioning  the  governor  to  send  the  tea 
back  to  England,  a  committee  of  prominent  citizens,  disguised  as 
American  Indians,  boarded  the  merchantmen  on  the  evening  of 
December  16,  1773,  ripped  open  the  chests  of  tea  with  their 
tomahawks,  and  dumped  the  costly  contents  into  Boston  harbor. 

THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 

147.  The  op-  The  "  Boston  Tea  Party  "  was  the  last  straw.  The  colonies 
Massachu-  had  added  insult  to  disobedience.  The  outraged  king  called 
isifcontroint~  uPon  Parliament  for  severe  measures  of  punishment.  Massa- 
1646-1773  chusetts,  and  especially  Boston,  must  be  made  an  example  of 
the  king's  vengeance  to  the  rest  of  the  colonies.  The  province 
was  an  old  offender.  As  far  back  as  1646  the  general  court 
had  assembled  for  the  "  discussion  of  the  usurpation  of  Parlia 
ment,"  and  a  spirited  member  had  declared  that  "  if  England 
should  impose  laws  upon  us  we  should  lose  the  liberties  of 
Englishmen  indeed";  its  attitude  toward  the  Navigation  Acts 
of  Charles  II  has  already  been  noticed  (p.  109).  A  governor  of 
New  York  had  written  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  (in  1732)  :  "  The 
example  and  spirit  of  the  Boston  people  begins  to  spread  abroad 
among  the  colonies  in  a  most  marvelous  manner."  Since  the 
very  first  attempt  of  the  British  government  after  the  French 
war  to  tighten  its  control  of  colonial  commerce  and  raise  a  revenue 


British  Ride  in  America  12 1 

in  America,  Massachusetts  had  taken  the  leading  part  in  defi 
ance.  John  Hancock,  Joseph  Warren,  John  Adams,  James  Otis, 
and,  above  all,  Samuel  Adams  had  labored  indefatigably  to  rouse 
not  only  their  own  colony  of  Massachusetts  but  the  whole  group 
of  American  colonies  to  assert  and  defend  their  ancient  privi 
leges  of  self-government.  Samuel  Adams  had  published  his 
circular  letter  to  the  colonies  in  1768  (see  above,  p.  117),  arid 
four  years  later  he  organized  Committees  of  Correspondence 
throughout  the  colonies,  to  keep  alive  their  common  interests 
in  resistance  to  Parliament's  interference.  Letters,  pamphlets, 
petitions,  defiances,  had  come  in  an  uninterrupted  stream  from 
the  Massachusetts  "  patriots."  It  was  in  Boston  that  the  chief 
resistance  to  the  Stamp  Act  had  been  offered  (1765) ;  it  was  there 
also  that  the  king  had  stationed  his  first  regulars  in  America 
(1768),  and  there  that  occurred  the  unfortunate  "  massacre  "  of 
the  fifth  of  March  (1770).  "To  George  Ill's  eyes  the  capital 
of  Massachusetts  was  a  center  of  vulgar  sedition,  strewn  with 
brickbats  and  broken  glass,  where  his  enemies  went  about  clothed 
in  homespun  and  his  friends  in  tar  and  feathers." 

When  Parliament  met  in  March,  1774,  it  proceeded  immedi-  148.  Massa- 
ately  to  the  passage  of  a  number  of  acts  to  punish  the  province  \^,  by  JiT 
of  Massachusetts.  The  port  of  Boston  was  closed  to  trade  until  ^j£ ?,1®faJ)le 
the  tea  destroyed  was  paid  for.  Town  meetings,  those  hotbeds 
of  discussion  and  disobedience,  were  forbidden  to  convene  with 
out  the  governor's  permission,  except  for  the  regular  elections 
of  officers.  The  public  buildings  designated  by  the  governor 
were  to  be  used  as  barracks  for  the  troops.  Colonials  accused 
of  certain  capital  crimes,  such  as  treason,  might  be  sent  to  Eng 
land  for  trial.  Up  to  this  time  the  British  government  had  not 
passed  any  measure  of  punishment  or  revenge.  The  Grenville 
legislation  and  the  Townshend  Acts,  however  unwelcome  to  the 
colonies,  had  not  been  designed  for  their  chastisement,  but  only 
for  their  better  coordination  with  the  other  parts  of  the  British 
Empire.  Parliament  had  blundered  into  legislation  and  backed 
out  of  it,  pursuing  a  policy  of  alternate  encroachment  and 


122         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

concession,  —  as  Edmund  Burke  said,  "  seeking  fresh  principles 
of  action  with  every  fresh  mail  from  America,"  and  "  sneaking 
out  of  the  difficulties  into  which  they  had  so  proudly  strutted." 
But  with  the  passage  of  the  so-called  Intolerable  Acts  of  1774 
this  shifting  policy  was  at  an  end.  There  were  no  more  repeals 
by  Parliament.  King  George's  "  patience  "  was  exhausted. 

149.  sym-        Expressions  of  sympathy  now  came  to  Massachusetts  from 
Massachu-    all  over  the  colonies.   The  Virginia  Burgesses  appointed  the  day 
colonies th<5  on  wni°n  tne  Intolerable  Acts  were  to  go  into  force  as  a  day  of 

fasting  and  prayer ;  and  when  they  were  dismissed  by  their  royal 
governor  for  showing  sympathy  with  "  rebels,"  they  promptly 
met  again  in  the  Raleigh  tavern  and  proposed  an  annual  congress 
of  committees  from  all  the  colonies. 

150.  The          The  Virginia  suggestion  met  with  favor,  and  on  September  5, 
nen*ai°con~-   1774,  the  first  Continental  Congress  met  in  Carpenter's  Hall, 
gress,  1774     Philadelphia,  "  to  consult  on  the  present  state  of  the  colonies 

.  .  .  and  to  deliberate  and  determine  upon  wise  and  proper 
measures  .  .  .  for  the  recovery  and  establishment  of  their  just 
rights  and  liberties  .  .  .  and  the  restoration  of  union  and  harmony 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  colonies,  most  ardently  desired 
by  all  good  men."  All  the  colonies  except  Georgia  were  repre 
sented,  and  among  that  remarkable  group  of  about  half  a  hun 
dred  men  were  the  leaders  of  the  ten  years'  struggle  against  the 
British  Parliament,  —  John  and  Samuel  Adams  of  Massachu 
setts,  Patrick  Henry  of  Virginia,  Stephen  Hopkins  of  Rhode 
Island,  John  Dickinson  of  Pennsylvania,  Roger  Sherman  of  Con 
necticut,  John  Rutledge  of  South  Carolina.  They  respectfully 
petitioned  the  king  to  put  an  end  to  their  grievances,  specifying 
thirteen  acts  of  Parliament  which  they  deemed  "  infringements 
and  violations  "  of  their  rights.  They  urged  on  all  the  colonies 
the  adoption  of  the  "  American  Association  "  for  the  boycott  of 
British  trade,  both  import  and  export,  and  after  a  six  weeks' 
session  adjourned,  calling  a  new  congress  for  the  tenth  of  the 
following  May,  unless  the  obnoxious  legislation  of  Parliament 
were  repealed  before  that  day. 


British  Rule  in  America 


12 


Commemorative  of  the  Battle  on  Lexington  Green 

1.  Statue  of  a  minuteman,  by  H.  H.  Kitson 

2.  Bowlder  marking  the  line  of  Captain  Parker's  troops 

3.  Major  Pitcairn's  pistols 

4.  The  oldest  Revolutionary  monument  in  America,  1799 

But  before  the  second  Continental  Congress  convened  the  151.  Armed 
British  regulars  and  the  rustic  militia  of  Massachusetts  had  met 
on  the  field  of  battle.    General  Gage,  who  succeeded  Hutchinson  setts 
as  governor  of  Massachusetts  in  the  summer  of  1774,  tried  to 
prevent  the  colonial  legislature  from  meeting.    But  in  spite  of  his 


124 


Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 


152.  The 
battle  of  Lex 
ington,  April 
19,  1775 


prohibition  they  assembled  at  Salem  and  later  at  Cambridge  and 
Concord.  They  appointed  a  Committee  of  Safety,  began  to  col 
lect  powder  and  military  stores,  and  assumed  the  government  of 
the  province  outside  the  limits  of  Boston,  where  Gage  had  his 
regiments  intrenched.  Early  in  1775  came  news  that  Parliament, 
in  spite  of  the  pleadings  of  Chatham,  Burke,  and  Fox,  had  re 
jected  the  petition  sent  by  the  first  Continental  Congress,  and 
had  declared  that  "  rebellion  existed  in  the  American  colonies." 
.  On  the  night  of  the  eighteenth  of  April  Gage  sent  troops  to 
seize  the  powder  which  the  provincials  had  collected  at  Concord, 
and  at  the  same 
time  to  arrest  the 


Paul  Revere's  Route,  April  19,  1775 


"traitors,  "John 
Hancock  and 
Samuel  Adams, 
who  had  taken 
refuge  with  par 
son  Jonas  Clark 
of  Lexington. 
But  the  ardent 
Boston  patriot, 
Paul  Revere,  had 
learned  of  the 

expedition,  and  galloping  ahead  of  the  British  troops,  he  roused 
the  farmers  on  the  way  and  warned  the  refugees.  When  the 
van  of  the  British  column  reached  Lexington,  they  found  a  little 
company  of  "  minutemen  "  (militia  ready  to  fight  at  a  minute's 
notice)  drawn  up  on  the  village  green  under  Captain  Parker. 
The  British  major  Pitcairn  ordered  "the  rebels"  to  disperse. 
Then  came  a  volley  of  musket  shots,  apparently  without  the 
major's  orders,  and  the  British  marched  on,  leaving  eight  minute- 
men  dead  or  dying  on  the  green.  Reaching  Concord,  Pitcairn's 
troops  were  turned  back  at  "  the  rude  bridge  which  arched  the 
flood,"  and  commenced  the  long  retreat  toward  Boston,  harassed 
by  a  deadly  fire  from  behind  stone  walls  and  apple  trees.  Lord 


British  Ride  in  America 


125 


Percy,  with  the  main  column,  met  the  exhausted  troops  just 
below  Lexington  Green  and  conducted  them  safely  within  the 
British  lines.  The  colonial  militia,  aroused  for  miles  around, 
closed  in  upon  Boston  16,000  strong  and  held  Gage  besieged 
in  his  capital. 


The  Battle  of  Lexington 
From  a  drawing  by  an  eyewitness 


REFERENCES 

The  Authority  of  Parliament  in  the  Colonies :  G.  E.  HOWARD,  The  Pre 
liminaries  of  the  Revolution  (American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  i-v;  W. 
M.  SLOANE,  The  P^rench  War  and  the  Revolution,  chap,  x;  J.  A.  WOOD- 
BURN,  Caitses  of  the  American  Revolution  (John  Hopkins  Studies,  Series 
X,  No.  12) ;  Lecky's  American  Revolution,  chap,  i,  pp.  1-49;  WM.  MAC- 
DONALD,  Select  Charters  of  American  History  idod-iyj^,  Nos.  53-56. 

Taxation  without  Representation :  JUSTIN  WINSOR,  Narrative  and  Crit 
ical  History  of  America,  Vol.  VI,  chap,  i ;  JOHN  FISKE,  The  American 
Revolution,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  i,  ii ;  M.  C.  TYLER,  Literary  History  of  the 
American  Revolution,  Vol.  I ;  G.  OTTO  TREVELYAN,  The  American  Revo 
lution,  Vol.  I ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Contemporaries, 
Vol.  II,  Nos.  138-152;  HOWARD,  chaps,  vi-xv;  MACDONALD,  Nos. 

57-67. 

The  Punishment  of  Massachusetts :  FISKE,  chap,  iii ;  TREVELYAN, 
chap,  iii;  HOWARD,  chaps,  xv-xvii;  WINSOR,  chap,  ii;  SLOANE,  chaps. 


126         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  English  Opinions  of  the  American  Cause:  (Dr.  Samuel  Johnson's) 
HART,  Vol.  II,  No.  156;    (Wm.  Pitt's)  HART,  Vol.  II,  No.  142;   Old 
South  Leaflets,  No.  199;  (Edmund  Burke's)  Old  South  Leaflets,  No. 
200;  WOODBURN,  Lecky's  American  Revolution,  pp.  154-165;  TREVEL- 
YAN,  Vol.  I,  pp.  28-44. 

2.  The  Navigation  Acts :  HART,  Vol.  II,  Nos.  45,  46,  67,  85,  87,  131  ; 
WlNSOR,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  5-12  ;  G.  L.  BEER,  The  Commercial  Policy  of  Eng 
land  towards  the  American  Colonies,  pp.  35—65. 

3.  The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac  :  SLOANE,  pp.  99-103  ;  WINSOR,  Vol.  VI, 
pp.  688-701 ;  PARKMAN,  The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,  Vol.  I,  pp.  172-321  ; 
Vol.  II,  pp.  299-313  ;  CHANNING  and  LANSING,  The  Story  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  pp.  113-134. 

4.  The  Boston  Tea  Party:  JOHN'FISKE,  Essays  Historical  and  Literary, 
Vol.  II,  pp.  163-195  ;  A.  P.  PEABODY,  Boston  Mobs  before  the  Revolution 
(Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1888);  MACDONALD,  Nos.  64-70;  HART, 
Vol.  II,  No.  152;  TYLER,  Vol.  I,  pp.  246-266;  TREVELYAN,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
135-139,  175-192  ;  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  68. 

5.  Thomas  Hutchinson,   the  Last  Royal  Governor  of   Massachusetts  : 
SLOANE,  pp.  163-170;   HART,  Vol.11,  Nos.  139-148;    FISKE,  Essays, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  1-51 ;  WINSOR,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  49-58  ;  J.  H.  STARK,  The  Loyal 
ists  of  Massachusetts,  pp.  145-174. 


f 
CHAPTER  V 

THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  NATION 

THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

"The  war  has  actually  begun.    The  next  gale  that  sweeps  153.  Thecri- 
from  the  North  will  bring  to  our  ears  the  clash  of  resounding  gpr/nVof  1775 
arms.    Our  brethren  are  already  in  the  field.  Why  stand  we  here 
idle  ?  .  .  .   Is  life  so  dear  or  peace  so  sweet  as  to  be  purchased 
at  the  price  of  chains  and  slavery  ?   Forbid  it,  Almighty  God  !  I 
know  not  what  course  others  may  take ;  but  as  for  me,  give  me 
liberty  or  give  me  death  !  "  These  prophetic  words  were  spoken 
by  Patrick  Henry  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  less  than 
a  month  before  the  "  clash  of  arms  "  at  Lexington  and  Concord. 

Less  than  a  month  after  that  event  the  second  Continental  154.  The 
Congress   met  at  Philadelphia  (May   10,   1775).    Events  had  £££}£?*" 
moved  rapidly  since  the  adjournment  of  the  previous  October.  gress 
The  petition  to  the  king  had  been  answered  by  a  proclamation 
that  rebellion  existed  in  the  American  colonies  ;  blood  had  been 
shed  on  both  sides,  not  by  irresponsible  mobs  or  taunted  soldiery, 
but  by  troops  marshaled  in  regular  battle  ;  eastern  Massachu 
setts  had  risen  in  arms,  and  held  its  royal  governor  besieged  in 
his  capital  of  Boston  ;  and  on  the  very  day  Congress  assembled 
Ethan  Allen  and  his  Green  Mountain  Boys  surprised  the  British 
garrison  in  Fort  Ticonderoga  and  turned  them  out "  in  the  name 
of  Great  Jehovah  and  the  Continental  Congress." 

To  meet  the  crisis  the  second  Continental  Congress,  with  the  155.  Formal 
tacit  consent  of  all  the  colonies,  assumed  the  powers  of  a  regu-  ^rbythe  °f 
lar  government.  It  utilized  the  rude  colonial  militia  gathered  Congress, 

0  July  6,  1775 

around  Boston  as  the  nucleus  of  a  continental  army,  and  ap 
pointed  George  Washington  to  the  supreme  command.    It  issued 

127 


128         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

paper  money,  made  trade  regulations,  sent  agents  abroad  to  win 
the  favor  of  foreign  courts,  advised  the  colonies  to  set  up  gov 
ernments  for  themselves,  regardless  of  the  king's  officers,  and 
made  formal  declaration  of  war  (July  6,  1775)  in  these  words: 
"  We  have  taken  up  arms  against  violence,  and  we  shall  lay 
them  down  when  hostilities  cease  on  the  part  of  our  aggressors. 
Our  cause  is  just ;  our  union  is  perfect."  In  spite  of  the  fact, 
however,  that  the  appeal  to  arms  had  already  been  made,  there 
was  enough  conservative  sentiment  in  the  Congress  to  support 
the  wary  John  Dickinson  in  his  motion  to  send  a  final  appeal  to 
the  king  to  restore  peace  and  harmony  with  his  colonies  in 
America. 

156.  George  But  King  George  III  was  the  last  man  in  England  to  appeal 
for  th^Ameri-  to  for  the  restoration  of  peace  and  harmony.  There  are  differ- 
ences  of  opinion  as  to  who  was  responsible  on  the  American 
side  for  the  outbreak  of  war,  some  scholars  holding  that  the  Rev 
olution  was  "  the  work  of  an  unscrupulous  and  desperate  minor 
ity  "  headed  by  firebrands  like  Patrick  Henry  and  the  Adamses ; 
others  that  it  was  the  result  of  a  slowly  maturing  conviction 
among  the  majority  of  the  people  in  almost  all  the  colonies  that 
every  peaceful  means  of  preserving  the  priceless  treasure  of  lib 
erty  had  been  exhausted.  But  there  is  no  difference  of  opinion 
as  to  the  author  of  the  war  on  the  English  side.  King  George 
III  alone  was  to  blame  for  the  violent  rupture  of  his  empire. 
He  had  come  to  the  throne  in  1760  with  a  firm  determination, 
inculcated  by  his  mother  and  his  tutors,  to  be  the  ruler  of  Great 
Britain  as  well  as  its  king.  He  had  stubbornly  refused  his  con 
fidence  to  ministers  of  the  nation's  choice,  like  Pitt,  and  retained 
only  those  who  would  be  his  partners  in  the  game  of  political 
intrigue.  By  a  lavish  use  of  bribes  ("golden  pills"),  govern 
ment  places,  and  pensions  he  had  built  up  a  powerful  party  of 
the  "  King's  Friends "  in  Parliament,  who  for  fifteen  years 
.(1768-1783)  thwarted  every  plan  of  broad  and  liberal  states 
manship  at  Westminster,  and  ran  the  great  British  Empire  as 
if  it  were  the  private  estate  of  King  George  and  his  lackeys. 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation  129 

The  counsels  of  the  wisest  statesmen  of  the  empire  —  of  a  157.  The  de- 
Burke,  a  Chatham,  a  Fox  —  were  hooted  down  in  Parliament  or  fhe  British 
received  with  silent  contempt  by  George  Ill's  ministers.   A  few  g°vernment, 
independent  spirits  pleaded  in  vain  with  Parliament  for  a  few 
moments  of  attention  while  they  discussed  the  most  vital  ques 
tion  of  the  day  and  of  the  century.    We  have  the  unanimous 
testimony  of  the  foremost  English  historians  of  the  nineteenth 
century  that  George  III  was  the  evil  genius  of  the  British  Em 
pire.    "  He  had  rooted  out  courage,  frankness,  and  independence 
from  the  councils  of  state,  and  put  puppets  in  the  place  of  men  " 
(Trevelyan)  ;  "his  tactics  were  fraught  with  danger  to  the  liber 
ties  of  the  people  "  (May) ;  "  his  acts  were  as  criminal  as  any 
which  led  Charles  I  to  the  scaffold  "  (Lecky)  ;  and  "  the  shame 
of  the  darkest  hour  of   England's  history  lies  wholly  at  his 
door"  (Green). 

It  was  to  such  a  king  that  the  American  people  —  a  people 
described  by  a  French  visitor,  the  Count  of  Segur,  as  "  men  of 
quiet  pride  who  have  no  master,  who  see  nothing  above  them 
but  the  law,  and  who  are  free  from  the  vanity,  the  servility,  the 
prejudices  of  our  European  societies"  —sent  their  last  vain 
petition  for  justice  in  the  summer  of  1775.  It  need  not  sur 
prise  us  that  the  king  and  his  ministers  did  not  deign  even  to 
receive  and  read  it. 

Until  the  second  petition  of  Congress  had  been  spurned,  the  158.  Ameri- 
leaders  of  the  colonial  resistance  to  parliamentary  taxation  al- 
most  to  a  man  protested  their  loyalty  to  King  George  III  and 
the  British  Empire.  "  I  have  never  heard  from  any  person  fore  1776 
drunk  or  sober,"  said  Benjamin  Franklin  to  Lord  Chatham  in 
1774,  "  the  least  expression  of  a  wish  for  separation."  Washing 
ton  declared  that  even  when  he  went  to  Cambridge  to  take  com 
mand  of  the  colonial  army,  the  thought  of  independence  was 
"  abhorrent "  to  him.  And  John  Adams  said  that  he  was  avoided 
in  the  streets  of  Philadelphia  in  1775  "  like  a  man  infected  with 
leprosy"  for  his  leanings  toward  "  independency."  To  be  sure, 
there  were  skeptical  and  ironical  Tories  in  the  colonies,  who 


130         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 


159.  The 
events  of  the 
year  1775 
widen  the 
breach  be 
tween  Eng 
land  and  the 
colonies 


declared  that  the  protestations  of  loyalty  in  the  petitions  of  Con 
gress  and  in  the  mouths  of  the  "  patriots  "  were  only  "  the  gold 
leaf  to  conceal  the  treason  beneath  "  ;  but  it  is  hard  to  believe 
that  men  like  Washington,  Jefferson,  Franklin,  and  Jay  were 
insincere  in  their  public  utterances. 

However,  by  the  end  of  1775  the  doctrine  of  the  allegiance 
of  the  colonies  to  King  George  was  so  flatly  contradicted  by  the 
facts  of  the  situation  that  it  became  ridiculous.  From  month  to 
month  the  breach  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country 
had  widened.  In  March,  1775,  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  for  ten 
years  had  been  the  agent  for  several  of  the  colonies  in  London, 
returned  to  America,  thereby  confessing  that  nothing  more  was 
to  be  accomplished  by  diplomacy.  In  April  occurred  the  battle  of 
Lexington.  In  May  came  the  bold  capture  of  Fort  Ticonderoga.  In 
June  Gage's  army  stormed  the  American  breastworks  on  Bunker 
Hill  in  three  desperate  and  bloody  assaults,  and  burned  the  ad 
jacent  town  of  Charlestown.  In  July  Massachusetts  set  up  a  new 
government  independent  of  the  king,  and  George  Washington 
took  command  of  the  colonial  army  which  was  besieging  Gage 
in  Boston.  In  August  King  George  issued  a  proclamation  call 
ing  on  all  loyal  subjects  to  suppress  the  rebellion  and  sedition  in 
North  America.  In  September  he  hired  20,000  German  soldiers 
from  the  princes  of  Hesse,  Anhalt,  and  Brunswick,  to  reduce  the 
colonies  to  submission.  In  October  a  British  captain,  without 
provocation,  sailed  into  Falmouth  harbor  (Portland,  Maine)  and 
burned  the  town,  rendering  1000  people  homeless  on  the  eve  of 
a  severe  New  England  winter.  In  November  two  small  Amer 
ican  armies  under  Richard  Montgomery  and  Benedict  Arnold 
were  invading  Canada  with  the  sanction  of  the  Continental  Con 
gress.  And  on  the  last  day  of  December,  1775,  Quebec  barely 
escaped  capture  by  the  colonial  troops  in  a  furious  attack,  in 
which  Montgomery  was  killed  and  Arnold  severely  wounded. 
The  news  of  the  burning  of  Falmouth  and  the  king's  contract 
for  German  mercenaries  reached  Congress  on  the  same  day. 
The  indignation  of  the  assembly  was  extreme.  "  I  am  ready 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation 


By" his  EXCELLENCY 

WILLIAM   TR YON,  Esquire, 

Captain  General,  and  Governor  in  Chief  in  and  over  the  Province  of  New.Tork,  and  the 
Territories  depending  thereon  in  America,  Chancellor  and  Vice  Admiral  of  the  fame. 

A     PROCLAMATION. 

\ TTHEREAS  f  have  received  His  Majefty's  Koyaf  ProcfarriaUOl,  given  at  tnc  Court  at  St.  Jamti  s,  the  Twenty. 
V  »     third  Day  ofs4u£u/l  laft,  in  the  Words  following :       | 

BY  THE  KING, 
A  Proclamation, 

For  fupprefsing     RTBELLIjON  and  SEDITION. 
GEORGE  R. 

HERE  AS  many  of  our  SubjeAs  in  divers  [parts  of  our  Colonies  and  Plantations  in  Mrtb-Aamta,  milled  by 


W' 
Mined  them,  after  various  diforderly  Ails  Committed  tn  difturbancc  of'the  public  Peace,  to  the  dbftrua.on  of 
lairful  Commc.-x,  sn,i  to  ,'fc  OffxISon  of.  Ml  loyal  SubjecTi  carrying  on  the  fame,  have  at  length  proceeded  to 
an  open  and  avowed  Rebellion,  by  arraying  thjemfelves  in  hoftile  Manner,  to  withftand  the  Execution  of  the  La*, 
and  trairoroufly  preparing,  ordering  and  levying  War  againft  us  :  And  whereas  there  ifi  Reafon  to  apprehend  that  fuch 
Rebellion  hath  been  much  promoted  and  encdurageci  by  the  traitorous  Correfpondence,  Counfcls,  and  Comfort  of 
divers  wicked  and  defperate  Pcrfont  within  tfiis  Realm :— To  the  End  therefore  that  none  of  our  S.ubjeds  may 

cglcft  or  violate  their  Duty  through  Ignorance  thereof,  or  through  any  Doubt  bf  the  Proteflion  which  the  Law  will  afford  to  their  Loyally  and  Zeal ; 
e  have  thought  fit,  by  and  with  the  Advice  of  our  Privy  Council,  to  illue  thi«  our  Royal  Proclamation,  hereby  declaring,  that  not  only  all  our  Officers 
Ml  and  Military,  are  obliged  to  exert  ihcir  utmoft  Endeavours  to  fupprcfs  fuch  Rebellion,  and  to  bring  the  Traitors  to  Jultice ;  but  that  all  our 
ubjecb  of  this  Realm  and  the  Dominions  thereunt  '  '  ' 
•J  10  difclofc  and  nuke  known  all  traitorous  Confpi 
nd  command  all  our  Officers,  as  well  Civil  as  Military,  and  : 

pprcfs  fuch  Rebellion,  and  to  difclofe  and  make  known  all  Treafons  and  traitorous  Confpiracies  which  they  (hall  know  to  be  againft  us,  our  Crown 
d  Dienityj  and  for  that  Purpofe,  (hat  they  tranfmit  to  one  of  our  principal  Secretaries  of  State,  or  other  proper  Officer,  due  and  full  Information  of 
PeriSo.  who  ball  be  found  carrying  on  Correfpondence  with,  or  in  any  Mpntr  i     - 
ebelhon  aeainft  our  Government  wuhlo          '        "'    '     


linions  thereunto  belonging,  arc  bound  bj-  Law  to  be  aiding  and  aflifting  in  the  Suppceflion  of  fuch  Rebellion, 
raitorous  Confpiracies  and  Attempts  againft  us,  our  Crown  and  Dignity  :  And  we  do  accordingly  ftrclly  charge 
Civil  as  Military,  and  all  other  our  obedkfht  and  loyal  Subjects,  to  ufe  their  utmoft  Endeavours  to  withftand  and 
Confpiracies  which  they  Dull  know  to  be  againft  us,  our  Crown 
ws  of  State,  or  other  proper  Officer,  due  and  full  Information  of 
*r  Degree  aiding  or  abetting  the  Perfoni  now  in  open  Arms  and 
iMwniw,  in  order  to  bring  to  condign  Pumflunent  the  Authors, 


a  againd  our  Government  wuhin  any  of  ou£  Cqjonies  and  Plantatior* >J  AatAyAimw, 
ijrojtors,  and  Aletton  of  filch  traitorous  DeOgni.  J       J     ' 

Gm  at  air  Court  a  St  Jaau'i  ibe  Tatnty-tbird  Dy  «/  Auguft,  0*  Ti-jM  &wr  HuJrtJ  nJStc.niy.fat,  i,  ibt  Fiftaat  Tar  of  our  St!gtt. 

In  Obedience  therefore  to  his  Majefty's  Commands 'to  me  gjvenJ  Ido  hereby  publifti  and  make  known  his  Majefty's 
oft  gracious  Proclamation  above  recited ;  eameftly  exhorting  and  requiring  all  his  Majefty's  loyal  and  iaithfiil  Sub- 
^s  within  this  Province,  as  they  value  their  Allegiance  due  otMbeft  of  Sovereigns,  their  Dependance  on  and  Pro 
ton  from  their  Parent  State,  and  the  Bleffings  of  a  mild,  free,  and  happy  Conftiturion;  and  as  they  would  fhun 
'e  fatal  Calamities  which  are  the  inevitable  Confluences  ol  Sedition  and  Rebellion,  to  pay  all  due  Obedience  to 
e  Laws  of  their  Country,  ferioufly  to  attend  to  his  Majefty's  did  Proclamation,  and  govern  themfelves  accordingly. 

~    .  »*r  07  HaJaJ  &a/  a  Arm,  atttCUjtf  New-York,  tk  Fca  tort*  Da,  cf  November,  OK  fbctftnd  Snx*  HnJral  ,rt  Snatffct, 
•'  -        ir«r^/&*«>»»/«rSK^»ZWCEO*CB/&7ii^fr*tw<./(^ 

WM.  TRYOjN. 
GOD   SAVE^TH^AT/^a 


King  George  Ill's  Proclamation  of  Rebellion 

now,  brother  rebel,"  said  a  Southern  member  to  Ward  of  Rhode 
Island,  "  to  declare  ourselves  independent ;  we  have  had  suffi 
cient  answer  to  our  petition." 

On  the  tenth  of  January,  1776,  there  came  from  a  press  in  160.  Thomas 
Philadelphia  a  pamphlet  entitled  "Common  Sense  "  which  made  Paine's  work 


132         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 


tens  of  thousands  throughout  the  colonies  ready  also  to  declare 
themselves  independent.  The  author  was  Thomas  Paine,  an 
Englishman  of  scanty  fortune  but  liberal  ideas,  who  had  won 
Franklin's  friendship  in  London  and  had  come  to  the  colonies 
in  1774  with  what  he  later  called  "  an  aversion  to  monarchy,  as 
debauching  to  the  dignity  of  man."  For  generations  the  odium 
attaching  to  Thomas  Paine's  name  for  his  bold  assault  on  ortho 
dox  theology  in  "The  Age  of 
Reason"  has  obscured  the 
merit  of  his  great  services  to 
the  cause  of  American  free 
dom.  In  "Common  Sense" 
he  argued  with  convincing 
clearness  that  the  position  of 
the  colonies  was  thoroughly 
inconsistent,  —  in  full  rebel 
lion  against  England,  yet  pro 
testing  loyalty  to  the  king.  He 
urged  them  to  lay  aside  sen 
timental  scruples,  to  realize 
that  they  were  the  nucleus  of 
a  great  American  nation  des 
tined  to  cover  the  continent 
and  to  be  an  example  to  the 
world  of  a  people  free  from 
the  servile  traditions  of  mon 
archy  and  the  low  public  morals  of  the  Old  World.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  any  other  printed  work  in  all  American  history  has  had 
a  greater  influence  than  Paine's  "  Common  Sense."  Over  1 00,000 
copies  were  sold,. the  equivalent  of  a  circulation  of  25,000,000 
in  our  present  population.  Washington  spoke  enthusiastically  of 
the  "sound  doctrine  and  unanswerable  reasoning"  of  the  pam 
phlet  ;  and  Edmund  Randolph,  the  first  attorney-general  of  the 
United  States,  said  that  the  declaration  of  the  independence  of 
America  was  due,  next  to  George  III,  to  Thomas  Paine. 


COMMON  SENSE: 

ADDRESSED    TO    THE 

INHABITANTS 

or 

AMERICA. 

On  the  followrag  interring 

SUBJECTS. 

I.  Of  (W  Oripn  Bna  DcAgn  of  GonmoKnt  in  jmral, 

wiU.  rancH.  Ktiflvkton  <b<  SnjIKh  Co-.ftll.ttan. 

II.  Of  Mowely  an*  H«rcJiUry  Sutccffion. 

III.  Th.«gM»  on  th.  p«(Vnt  5iau  ,(  Anxrkan  Aff«b». 


•Written  by  an  E  N  Gil  S  H  M  A  N. 

jftyJ&HUM    _JL^X 


PHILADELPHIA,    Pri.i.4 
AW  SMIy  R.  BELL,  (n  TbMSwct,  |,;6. 


Title-page  of  Thomas  Paine's  Pam 
phlet,  "  Common  Sense  " 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation  133 

When,  therefore,  the  legislature  of  North  Carolina  ordered  161.  Lee  of 
its  representatives  in  Congress  to  advocate  independence,1  Vir-  poseslnde-0 
ginia  and  all  the  New  England  colonies  fell  quickly  into  line.  Pendence 
The  Virginia  delegation  took  the  lead,  its  chairman,  Richard 
Henry  Lee,  moving,  on  the  seventh  of  June,  that  these  united 
colonies  are  and  of  right  ought  to  be  free  and  independent  states, 
that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  Crown, 
and  that  all  political  connection  between  them  and  the  state  of 
Great  Britain  is  and  ought  to  be  totally  dissolved. 

The  vote  on  this  momentous  motion  was  postponed  until  the  162.  Thomas 
first  of  July,  and  a  committee  composed  of  Jefferson,  Franklin, 


John  Adams,  Sherman,  and  Livingston  was  appointed  to  frame  Peclaratlon  of 

Independence 

a  fitting  declaration  of  independence  in  case  the  motion  was 
carried.  Jefferson  wrote  the  document  in  the  fervor  of  sponta 
neous  patriotism,  "  without  reference  to  book  or  pamphlet," 
as  he  later  declared.  His  draft  was  somewhat  modified  by  the 
other  members  of  the  committee,  especially  Adams  and  Franklin. 
The  wonderful  Declaration  of  Independence,  engrossed  on 
parchment  and  signed  by  fifty-six  members  of  the  Congress,  is 
still  preserved  in  the  State  Department  at  Washington.2 

On  the  first  day  of  July,  Lee's  motion  was  taken  from  the  163.  The 
table  for-debate,  and  on  the  next  day  was  passed  by  the  vote  of  adopted?0 
all  the  colonies  except  New  York.    Two  days  later  (July  4)  July  <>  1776 
Jefferson's  Declaration  was  adopted.    We  celebrate  the  latter 
event  in  our  national  holiday,  but  the  motion  declaring  our  inde 
pendence  was  carried  the  second  of  July.3 

1  The  taxpayers  of  North  Carolina  had  already  resisted  the  king's  troops  in 
arms,  in  1771,  at  Alamance,  near  the  source  of  the  Cape  Fear  River.   They  had 
been  beaten  and  a  number  of  them  had  been  hanged  as  traitors.    In  May,  1775, 
other  North  Carolina  patriots,  of  the  county  of  Mecklenburg,  had  voted  that 
"  the  king's  civil  and  military  commissions  were  all  annulled  and  vacated."   This 
vote  was  practically  a  declaration  of  independence  by  the  patriots  of  Mecklenburg 
County,  but  no  formal  declaration  was  drawn  up,  and  the  North  Carolina  dele 
gates  failed  to  report  the  resolution  to  the  Continental  Congress. 

2  Until  1894  this  most  famous  document  in  our  archives  was  on  view  to  the 
public,  but  in  that  year,  owing  to  the  rapid  fading  and  cracking  of  the  parchment, 
the  document  was  withdrawn  from  contact  with  the  light  and  air. 

3  John  Adams  declared  that  the  second  of  July  would  be  forever  celebrated  as 
the  most  glorious  day  in  our  history. 


1 34         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 


164.  Anaiy-         The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  issued  out  of  "  a  decent 
Decoration  of  respect  for  the  opinion  of  mankind."    It  asserted  in  the  opening 
independence    paragraph  that  all  men  are  created  equal  and  endowed  with 
"  certain  inalienable  rights,"  such  as  "  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur 
suit  of  happiness,"  which  it  is  the  purpose  of  all  governments 
to  secure  ;  and  that  "whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes 
destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or 


Facsimile  of  the  Opening  Lines  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 

to  abolish  it."  The  king  of  Great  Britain,  it  declared,  had  violated 
those  rights  by  a  long  train  of  abuses,  and  in  proof  there  was 
submitted  to  a  candid  world  a  list  of  twenty-seven  arbitrary  and 
tyrannical  acts  aimed  at  the  liberty  of  his  American  subjects.  He 
had  proved  himself  unfit  to  be  the  ruler  of  a  free  people.  "We, 
therefore,"  concludes  the  Declaration,  "  the  Representatives  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  in  General  Congress  assembled, 
.  .  .  solemnly  publish  and  declare,  that  these  United  Colonies 
are,  and  of  Right  ought  to  be,  Free  and  Independent  States.  .  .  . 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation  1 3  5 

And  for  the  support  of  this  Declaration,  with  firm  reliance  on 
the  protection  of  divine  Providence,  we  mutually  pledge  to  each 
other  our  Lives,  our  Fortunes,  and  our  sacred  Honor." 

The  effect  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  momen-  165.  Effect 
tous.  It  put  an  end  to  the  inconsistency  of  the  colonial  position.  rati0n 
It  made  the  troops  of  Washington,  poor  and  meager  as  they 
were,  a  national  army.  It  changed  the  struggle  on  the  part  of 
America  from  one  of  armed  resistance  to  the  unlawful  acts  of  a 
sovereign  still  acknowledged,  to  a  war  against  a  foreign  king  and 
state ;  and  on  the  part  of  England,  from  a  quarrel  with  rebel 
lious  subjects  to  the  invasion  of  an  independent  country.  Until 
the  Declaration  was  published  the  Tories  or  Loyalists,  of  whom 
there  were  hundreds  of  thousands  in  the  American  colonies, 
were  champions  of  one  side  of  the  debatable  question,  namely, 
whether  the  abuses  of  the  king's  ministers  justified  armed 
resistance;  but  after  the  Declaration  loyalty  to  the  king  of 
Great  Britain  became  treason  to  their  country.  As  traitors  they 
were  accordingly  treated  —  their  property  confiscated,  their  utter 
ances  controlled,  and  their  conduct  regulated  by  severe  laws  in 
every  one  of  the  new  states. 

The  issue  was  now  clearly  defined.    The  new  nation  of  the  166.  Wash- 
United  States  was  fighting  for  its  very  existence.    In  a  general  mfnds  the1" 
order  of  July  9,  1776,  Washington  communicated  the  Declaration  cause  to  his 
to  his  army  in  New  York,  whither  he  had  moved  after  compel 
ling  Gage  to  evacuate  Boston  (May  17,  1776).    "The  General 
hopes,"  read  the  order,  "  that  this  important  event  will  serve  as 
an  incentive  to  every  officer  and  soldier  to  act  with  fidelity  and 
courage,  as  knowing  that  now  the  peace  and  safety  of  his  country 
depend  (under  God)  solely  on  the  success  of  our  arms ;    and 
that  he  is  in  the  service  of  a  state  possessed  of  sufficient  power 
to  reward  his  merit  and  advance  him  to  the  highest  honors  of 
a  free  country."1 

1  The  troops  and  the  citizens  of  New  York  celebrated  this  announcement  by 
throwing  down  the  leaden  statue  of  George  III,  which  stood  on  Bowling  Green, 

and  melting  it  into  bullets  for  the  colonial  rifles. 


136         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

THE  REVOLUTIONARY  WAR 

A  detailed  description  of  battles  and  campaigns  is  profitable 
only  to  experts  in  military  science,  whereas  the  causes  that  lead 
a  country  into  war,  especially  into  a  war  for  independence,  are 
most  important  stages  in  the  evolution  of  a  people's  political 
and  moral  life.  Therefore,  after  our  rather  full  study  of  the 
preliminaries  of  the  American  Revolution,  we  shall  dwell  but 
briefly  on  the  actual  conflict. 
167.  wash-  Shortly  after  Washington  had  compelled  General  Gage  to 

ington's  dis 

astrous  re-      evacuate  Boston  three  British  major  generals  —  Howe,  Clinton 


an<^  Burgoyne  —  arrived  to  conduct  the  war  against  the  rebel- 
1776  lious  colonies  (May,  1776).   Washington  tried  to  defend  New 

York,  but  Howe's  superior  force  of  veterans  drove  his  militia 
from  Brooklyn  Heights,  Long  Island,  and  compelled  him  to 
retreat  step  by  step  through  the  city  of  New  York  and  up  the 
Hudson,  then  across  the  river  into  New  Jersey,  and  then  across 
the  state  of  New  Jersey  to  a  safe  position  on  the  western  bank 
of  the  Delaware.  With  3000  men  left  in  the  hands  of  the 
British  as  prisoners,  and  7000  more  under  the  command  of  the 
insubordinate  and  treacherous  Charles  Lee  refusing  to  come  to 
his  aid,  Washington  wrote  to  his  brother  in  December  :  "  If 
every  nerve  is  not  strained  to  recruit  a  new  army  with  all  pos 
sible  expedition,  I  think  the  game  is  pretty  nearly  up."  A 
determined  move  by  Howe  from  New  York  to  the  Delaware 
might  easily  have  overwhelmed  the  remnants  of  Washington's 
army,  some  2000  troops,  and  put  an  end  then  and  there  to 
the  American  Revolution.  But  fortunately  for  the  patriot  cause 
Howe  was  a  lukewarm  enemy.  Surrounded  by  Tory  flatterers, 
he  believed  that  in  chasing  Washington  from  New  York  and 
New  Jersey  he  had  already  given  the  American  rebellion  its  death 
blow,  and  that  he  had  only  to  wait  a  few  weeks  before  the  peni 
tent  Congress  at  Philadelphia  would  be  suing  for  the  pardon 
George  III  had  authorized  him  to  grant  when  resistance  to  the 
royal  will  should  cease. 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation  1  37 

But  Washington    with    magnificent    audacity  recrossed    the  168.  His 

,„,    .  .    .          r  ..  -11  recovery  of 

Delaware  on   Christmas   night  of    1776,   surprised   and   over-  New  jersey, 


whelmed  a  post  of  1000  Hessians  at  Trenton,  and  a  few  days 
later  defeated  the  British  column  of  Lord  Cornwallis  at  Prince-  1777 
ton  and  drove  it  back  to  the  neighborhood  of  New  York. 
The  courage  and  skill  of  Washington  had  saved  the  patriot 
cause.  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia,  the  best  judge  of  gen 
eralship  in  Europe,  called  Washington's  recovery  of  New  Jersey 
"  the  most  brilliant  campaign  of  the  eighteenth  century."  Corn 
wallis  himself,  when  complimenting  Washington  five  years  later 
on  the  skill  with  which  the  latter  had  forced  him  to  the  final 
surrender  at  Yorktown,  added  :  "  But  after  all,  your  Excel 
lency's  achievements  in  New  Jersey  were  such  that  nothing 
could  surpass  them."1 

Disappointed  in  their  hopes  that  the  patriot  cause  would  col-  169.  The 
lapse  of  itself,  the  British  ministry  prepared  an  elaborate  plan  of 


attack  for  the  campaign  of  1777.    Three  armies  wrere  to  invade  control  of  the 

Hudson,  1777 

New  York.  Burgoyne,  descending  from  Montreal  via  Lake 
Champlain  and  the  upper  Hudson  ;  St.  Leger,  marching  east 
ward  from  Lake  Ontario  through  the  Mohawk  valley  ;  and- 
Howe,  ascending  the  Hudson  from  New  York  City,  were  to 
converge  at  Albany  and  so,  by  controlling  the  Hudson,  were  to 
shut  New  England  off  from  the  southern  colonies.  This  ambi 
tious  scheme,  with  its  total  disregard  of  the  conditions  of  travel 
in  northern  and  western  New  York,  showed  how  little  the  British 
WTar  Department  had  learned  from  Braddock's  defeat  twenty 
years  earlier. 

St.  Leger,  toiling  through  the  western  wilderness,  was  effectu-  170.  Bur- 
ally  stopped  by  the  brave  old  German    Indian  fighter,  General  SndeV  at*1" 
Herkimer,  long  before  he  had  got  halfway  to  Albany  ;  Howe's  Saratoga, 
instructions  to  move  up  the  river  were  tucked  into  a  pigeon-  1777 
hole  by  the  war  minister,  Lord  George  Germaine,  who  was  anxious 
to  get  off  to  the  country  to  shoot  pheasants,  and  left  there  to 

1  A  vivid  account  of  this  wonderful  campaign  is  given  in  John  Fiske's  Amer 
ican  Revolution,  Vol.  I,  pp.  239-247. 


138         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

gather  the  dust  of  years ;  while  Burgoyne,  fighting  his  way  step 
by  step  against  the  dead  resistance  of  the  tangled  and  cluttered 
forests  of  northern  New  York  and  the  live  resistance  of  New 
England  riflemen  who  gathered  in  swarms  to  harass  his  fatigued 
columns,  was  brought  to  bay  near  Saratoga,  and  by  the  dash 
ing  charges  of  Arnold,  Morgan,  and  Schuyler  was  obliged  to 
surrender  his  total  force  of  6000  men  and  officers  to  General 
Horatio  Gates,  commander  of  the  continental  army  on  the 
Hudson  (October  17,  1777). 

171.  The  Sir  Edward  Creasy  has  included  Burgoyne's  defeat  at  Saratoga 
oftheia?int  among  his  "Fifteen  Decisive  Battles  of  the  World."    It  was  the 

turning  point  of  the  Revolution.  The  total  failure  of  the  Hudson 
River  campaign  left  the  British  without  a  plan  of  war.  To  be 
sure,  General  Howe  had  sailed  down  from  New  York  to  the  head 
of  Chesapeake  Bay,  while  he  ought  to  have  been  marching  up 
the  Hudson  to  join  Burgoyne,  and  had  seized  the  "  rebel  capital," 
Philadelphia,  in  spite  of  Washington's  plucky  opposition  at  Ger- 
mantown  and  Brandywine  Creek.  But  though  the  British  officers 
with  their  Tory  friends  in  Philadelphia  were  spending  a  gay  winter 
at  fetes  and  balls  while  Washington's  destitute  fragment  of  an 
army  was  shivering  and  starving  at  Valley  Forge  near  by,  never 
theless  the  advantage  of  the  winter  of  1777-1778  was  with  the 
Americans. 

172.  Great          The  attempts  of  the  British  both  to  crush  Washington's  army 
terms  of          and  to  sever  the  northern  and  southern  colonies  had  failed.   The 
peace,  March,  jmpOSSibility  of  occupying  the  country  back  of  the  few  seaport 

towns,  such  as  New  York,  Newport,  and  Philadelphia,  began 
to  be  apparent  to  the  British  ministry,  as  it  had  from  the  first 
been  apparent  to  many  British  merchants,  who  had  advised 
making  the  war  a  purely  naval  one,  for  the  blockade  of  the 
American  ports  and  the  destruction  of  their  commerce.  The 
amiable  Lord  North,  distressed  as  much  by  the  prolongation 
of  the  war  as  by  the  disaster  to  Burgoyne,  was  allowed  to 
send  an  embassy  to  the  American  Congress  early  in  1778,  con 
ceding  to  the  colonies  every  right  they  had  contended  for  since 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation 


139 


the  days  of  the  Stamp  Act,  if  they  would  only  lay  down  their 
arms  and  return  to  British  allegiance. 

But  Lord  North's  offer  came  too  late.    The  victory  at  Sara-  173.  The 

11  r  i  r™       French  alli- 

toga  had  opened  the  eyes  or  another  court  and  sovereign.    Ine  ance,  Febru- 

French    ministry,    which  ary>  I778 
/O  'r  dw&  ^ry  x"  i      f or  °ver  a  year  had  been 

\^Sir  -J^fe^;:^  23   *77&-^  .      .  . 

refusing  the  repeated  re 
quests  of  the  colonies  for 
aid,  uncertain  whether  the 
American  rebellion  were  a 
weapon  strong  enough  to 
use  in  taking  revenge  on 
England  for  the  humiliat 
ing  defeat  of  twenty  years 
before,  decided  in  the  af 
firmative  after  Saratoga. 
In  February,  1778,  treaties 
of  commerce  and  alliance 
were  signed  by  the  French 
and  American  diplomats. 
The  treaty  of  alliance  (the 
only  one  ever  made  by  the 
United  States)  pledged 
each  nation  to  continue 
the  war  with  England 
until  the  other  was  ready 
to  make  peace. 

The    French     alliance  174.  The  war 
was  a  great  gain  for  the  ™*™*l* 
Americans.    By  it  the  in-  character 
dependence  of  the  United  States  was  recognized  by  the  strong 
est  power  of  continental  Europe.    Men  and  money,  both  sorely 
needed,  were  furnished  to  the  struggling  states,  and,  above  all, 
a  fleet  was  sent  over  to  deliver  the  American  seaports  from 
the  British.   John  Paul  Jones,  the  intrepid  sea  fighter,  was  fitted 


Letter  of  Franklin  to  the  Count  of  Ver- 
gennes,  —  the  Earliest  Diplomatic  Corre 
spondence  of  the  American  Congress 


140         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

out  with  five  vessels  in  France,  and  flying  the  new  American 
flag  from  the  masthead  of  the  Bonhomme  Richard,  attacked  the 
British  frigates  in  their  own  waters.  As  the  war  assumed  a  Euro 
pean  aspect,  Spain  joined  England's  enemies  (1779)  with  the 
hope  of  regaining  the  stronghold  of  Gibraltar ;  and  the  next  year 
Holland,  England's  old  commercial  rival,  came  into  the  league 
for  the  destruction  of  Britain's  naval  power  and  the  overthrow 
of  her  colonial  empire.  Thus  the  American  Revolution,  after  the 
victory  at  Saratoga,  developed  into  a  coalition  of  four  powers 
against  Great  Britain;  and  the  American  continent  became 
again,  for  the  fifth  time  within  a  century,  the  ground  on  which 
France  and  England  fought  out  their  mighty  duel. 

175.  Lee  and       Not  caring  to  defend  the  forts  on  the  Delaware  against  a 
at^oiTmouth,  French  fleet,  the  British  evacuated  Philadelphia  in  the  early  sum- 
August,  1778    mer  Of  jyyg,  and  fell  back  upon  New  York,  escaping  defeat  at 

the  hands  of  the  American  army  on  the  way  only  by  the  treach 
ery  of  General  Charles  Lee,  who  basely  ordered  a  retreat  at  the 
battle  of  Monmouth.  Washington  arrived  on  the  scene  of  action 
in  time  to  save  the  day  for  the  American  cause,  and  sent  Lee 
into  long-merited  disgrace. 

176.  Thewar       At  the  close  of  1778  the  British  transferred  the  seat  of  war 

to  the  South,  with  a  view  of  detaching  the  states  below  the  Po 
tomac  from  the  patriot  cause.  There  was  much  British  senti 
ment  in  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas,  where  Sir  Henry  Clinton 
enrolled  some  2000  Loyalist  troops  in  his  army.  The  war  in 
the  Carolinas  assumed  a  civil  character,  therefore,  marked  by 
bitter  partisan  fighting  and  guerrilla  raids.  The  British  had  no 
systematic  plan  of  campaign,  but  marched  and  countermarched 
in  an  irregular  line  from  coast  to  interior  and  interior  to  coast, 
wherever  the  resistance  was  least  and  the  hope  of  attract 
ing  soldiers  to  their  banners  greatest.  Their  capture  of  Savan 
nah  in  December,  1778,  enabled  them  to  reestablish  the  royal 
government  in  Georgia,  and  in  1780  they  took  Charleston,  the 
other  great  southern  port.  In  the  interior  of  the  Carolinas 
they  were  generally  successful,  until  General  Nathanael  Greene, 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation  141 

next  to  Washington  the  ablest  commander  on  the  American 
side,  was  sent  to  replace  Gates,  the  "  hero  of  Saratoga,"  who 
had  ignominiously  fled  from  the  field  on  his  defeat  at  Camden, 
South  Carolina  (August,  lySo).1  By  the  victories  at  Cowpens 
(January,  1781)  and  Guilford  (March,  1781)  Morgan  and  Greene 
retrieved  the  defeat  of  Gates  and  recovered  the  interior  of  the 
Carolinas. 

The  most  remarkable  battle  and  the  turning  point  of  the  war 
south  of  the  Potomac  River  was  the  engagement  at  Kings  . 
Mountain,  on  the  border  between  North  and  South  Carolina, 
where  about  1000  sturdy  frontiersmen  from  the  Carolinas  and 
Georgia,  untrained  and  poorly  equipped,  put  to  rout  a  body  of 
1200  British  regulars  under  Ferguson,  who  had  been  sent  by 
General  Cornwallis  to  clear  the  guerrillas  out  of  the  upland 
regions  and  make  his  march  through  the  Carolinas  easy. 

Meanwhile  the  most  distressing  incident  of  the  war  was  tak-  177.  The 
ing  place  on  the  Hudson.  Benedict  Arnold,  who  had  so  signally  genedfc?  °f 
distinguished  himself  for  bravery  at  Quebec  and  Saratoga,  had  Arnold 
not  been  advanced  so  rapidly  in  the  American  army  as  he  thought 
he  deserved  to  be.  Encouraged  by  his  friends  among  the  British 
officers,  and  by  his  wife,  who  had  been  a  belle  in  the  Tory 
circles  of  Philadelphia,  he  nursed  his  injured  pride  to  a  point 
where  he  determined  to  betray  his  country.  He  easily  obtained 
from  Washington  the  command  of  the  important  fortress  of  West 
Point  on  the  Hudson,  and  forthwith  opened  negotiations  with 
Sir  Henry  Clinton  to  hand  the  post  over  to  the  British.  Major 
Andre,  the  British  agent  in  the  transaction,  was  caught  inside 
the  American  lines  at  Tarrytown  and  the  incriminating  papers 
were  found  in  his  boots.  He  was  hanged  as  a  spy.  Warned  of 
Andre's  capture  in  the  nick  of  time,  Arnold  fled  hastily  from 
his  breakfast  table  and  reached  a  British  war  vessel  lying  in 

1  Baron  De  Kalb,  who,  with  Lafayette,  had  joined  Washington's  army  during 
the  famous  campaign  of  1776,  was  killed  in  this  battle.  Other  distinguished 
foreigners  who  gave  their  services  to  the  American  cause  were  Baron  Steuben,  a 
veteran  Prussian  officer,  and  the  Polish  generals,  Kosciusko  and  Pulaski.  The 
latter  was  killed  in  the  engagement  at  Charleston,  in  May,  1780. 


142         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 


178.  The 


the  Hudson.  He  was  rewarded  with  a  brigadier  generalship  in 
Clinton's  army,  and  assumed  command  of  the  British  troops 
in  Virginia.1 


Paper  found  in  Andre's  Possession 

Arnold  was  joined  by  Lord  Cornwallis  (to  whom  Clinton  had 
turned  over  his  command  in  the  South)  in  the  summer  of  1781. 
Their  combined  forces  fortified  a  position  at  Yorktown,  to  await 

1  After  the  war  Arnold  went  to  England  to  live,  where  he  had  to  endure  at 
times  insolent  reminders  of  his  treachery.  He  died,  an  old  man,  in  London,  June 
14,  1801,  dressed,  by  his  own  pathetic  request,  in  his  old  colonial  uniform  with 
the  epaulets  and  sword  knot  presented  to  him  by  Washington  after  the  victory 
of  Saratoga.  In  the  great  monument  erected  on  the  battlefield  of  Saratoga  (1883) 
the  niche  which  should  contain  Arnold's  statue  is  left  empty,  while  statues  of 
Gates,  Morgan,  and  Schuyler  adorn  the  other  three  sides  of  the  monument. 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation 


Washington's  Campaigns 

Coniwallis' March  1780- 17.SI   - 


The  War  on  the  Atlantic 
Seaboard 


a  British  fleet  bringing  reenf  orce- 
ments  from  New  York.  Corn- 
wallis's  object  was  to  conquer 
the  state  of  Virginia,  which  was 
protected  only  by  a  meager  force 
under  the  gallant  young  Mar 
quis  de  Lafayette,  Washington's 
trusted  friend,  and  the  most  de 
voted  of  the  eleven  foreign  major 
generals  who  served  in  the 
American  army. 

But  the  tables  were  turned  on  179.  corn- 
Cornwallis.   While  he  was  wait-  ^ders'at" 

ing  in  Yorktown,  a  French  fleet  Jorktown, 

October  19, 
under   De   Grasse,  arriving   off  1781 

the  mouth  of  Chesapeake  Bay, 
defeated  the  British  squadron 
which  was  bringing  the  ree'n- 
forcements  from  New  York,  and 
landed  3000  French  troops  on 
the  peninsula  in  their  stead.  At 
the  same  moment  Washington, 
always  on  the  right  spot  at  the 
right  moment,  conducted  a  bril 
liant  march  of  three  hundred 
miles  from  the  Hudson  to  the 
York  River,  with  2000  Ameri 
cans  and  4000  Frenchmen,  and 
effecting  a  junction  with  Lafa 
yette,  penned  Cornwallis  up  in 
the  narrow  peninsula  between  the 
York  and  the  James.  Cornwallis 
made  a  brave  but  vain  effort  to 
break  the  besieging  lines.  On  the 
nineteenth  of  October,  1781,  four 


144         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 


180.  The  war 
in  the  West 


181.  The 
Proclamation 
Line  of  1763 


years,  almost  to  the  day,  after  Burgoyne's  surrender  at  Sara 
toga,  Cornwallis  delivered  his  sword  to  Washington,  surrender 
ing  his  army  of  7000  men  and  officers  as  prisoners  of  war. 
The  British  attempt  to  conquer  the  revolting  colonies  was  over. 
North  and  south  their  armies  had  met  with  disaster.  They 
abandoned  the  posts  which  they  still  held,  with  the  exception 
of  New  York,  and  withdrew  to 
the  West  Indies  to  triumph  over 
France  in  a  great  naval  battle 
and  still  preserve  their  ascend 
ancy  in  that  rich  region  of  the 
western  world. 

While  the  American  army  on 
the  Atlantic  seaboard  was  suc 
cessfully  repelling  the  British  in 
vasion  with  the  aid  of  the  French 
fleet,  a  bold  campaign  was  being 
conducted  by  the  hardy  fron 
tiersmen  of  the  west  for  the  over 
throw  of  England's  authority 
beyond  the  Alleghenies. 

In  the  very  year  that  the  British  took  possession  of  the  vast 
territory  between  the  eastern  mountains  and  the  Mississippi, 
King  George  had  issued  a  proclamation  forbidding  his  governors 
in  the  American  colonies  to  extend  their  authority  or  to  permit 
settlement  west  of  a  line  running  along  the  crest  of  the  Allegheny 
mountains.  The  ostensible  reason  for  drawing  this  "  Proclama 
tion  Line  "  was  to  secure  the  allegiance  and  trade  of  the  Indians 
so  lately  devoted  to  France,  by  giving  them  assurance  that  their 
hunting  grounds  would  not  be  invaded  by  the  white  settlers 
from  across  the  mountains ;  but  the  real  reason  was  to  curtail 
the  power  of  the  colonies,  discredit  their  old  "  sea-to-sea  "  char 
ters,  and  confine  them  to  the  narrow  region  along  the  Atlantic 
coast,  where  they  could  be  within  easier  reach  of  the  British 
authority. 


X*'       "* 

&& .         ^ 

S  Lafcyptfe*-    .- 


X 


The  Siege  of  Yorktown 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation 


145 


It  was  a  bitter  disappointment  to  the  ambitious  frontiersmen,   182.  The 
after  having  defeated  the  French  attempt  to  shut  them  in  be-  march  of  the 
hind  the  mountains,  to  have  the  British  king  adopt  the  same  Ploneers 
policy.    They  felt  that  they  were  being  kept  out  of  a  region 
destined  for  them  by  nature,  and  they  resented  being  left  exposed 
to  danger  from  the  fierce  Indians  that  swept  up  and  down  the 
frontier  in  their  intertribal  raids  and  wars.    Therefore  the  sturdy 


A  Pioneer  Kentucky  Settlement 

woodsmen  and  pioneers  from  the  back  counties  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolina?  had  pushed  across  the  moun 
tains  into  the  densely  wooded  land  of  the  Ohio,  the  Cumberland, 
and  the  Tennessee  valleys.  In  1 769  Daniel  Boone,  the  most  cele 
brated  of  these  pioneers,  set  out  from  his  home  in  North  Car 
olina  to  seek  "  Kentucke  "  (the  "  dark  and  bloody  ground  "), 
which  was  stained  by  centuries  of  Indian  feuds.  In  the  next 
three  years  Virginia  pioneers,  led  by  James  Robertson  and  John 
Sevier,  had  founded  settlements  on  the  Watauga  River  in  the 


146        Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 


western  mountains  of  North  Carolina ;  and,  like  the  early  emi 
grants  to  the  shores  of  New  England,  were  devising  a  govern 
ment  even  while  they  were  clearing  the  soil  and  defending  their 
rude  homes  against  the  attack  of  the  savages. 


The  Revolutionary  War  in  the  West 

183.  The  vie-  Though  Pontiac's  great  conspiracy  (p.  113)  to  keep  the 
Kanawhaana  English  out  of  the  forts  of  the  Northwest  had  been  crushed 
(*765)'  and  the  Iroquois  had  abandoned  their  claims  to  the 
region  between  the  Ohio  and  Lake  Ontario  (1768),  still  the 
savage  tribes  of  Mingos,  Shawnees,  and  Cherokees  disputed 
with  the  white  men  every  mile  of  the  territory  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghenies.  In  October,  1774  (while  the  first  Continental  Congress 
was  discussing  methods  of  resistance  to  English  taxation),  a  great 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation  147 

victory  of  the  Virginia  backwoodsmen  over  Cornstalk,  the 
Shawnee  chieftain,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kanawha  River,  had 
forced  the  Indians  to  abandon  the  rich  lands  of  the  present  state 
of  Kentucky.  And  in  November,  1776  (while  Washington's 
dwindling  army  was  fleeing  across  the  state  of  New  Jersey),  the 
decisive  repulse  of  the  Cherokees  from  the  Watauga  settlements 
opened  to  the  pioneers  the  equally  rich  lands  of  Tennessee. 

The  victories  on  the  Kanawha  and  the  Watauga,  fought  against  184.  The 
the  Indian  foe,  by  men  in  the  fringed  hunting  shirt  of  deer-  o^thesTvic- 
skin  and  by  the  rude  tactics  of  Indian  warfare,  have  often  gone  tories 
unmentioned,  while  unimportant  skirmishes  on  the  seaboard,  be 
tween  uniformed  soldiers,  commanded  by  officers  in  gold  braid, 
have  been  described  in  detail.   But  in  their  effects  on  our  country's 
history  these  Indian  fights,  with  the   later  victories  north  of 
the  Ohio  to  which  they  opened  the  way,  deserve  to  rank  with 
Saratoga  and  Yorktown.    For  if  the  latter  victories  decided  that 
America  should  take  her  place  among  the  nations  of  the  world, 
the  former  proclaimed  that  the  new  nation  would  not  be  content 
to  be  shut  up  in  a  little  strip  of  seacoast,  but  had  set  its  face 
westward  to  possess  the  whole  continent. 

The  settlers  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  numbered  only  a  iss.  The 
few  hundred  at  the  outbreak  of  the  American  Revolution,  but  JJe^tera 
they  were  intensely  democratic  and  patriotic.    In  May,   1775,  settlements 
delegates  from  four  "  stations  "  in  Kentucky  "  met  in  a  wide 
field  of  white  clover,  under  the  shade  of  a  monstrous  elm,"  and 
made  wise  laws  for  their  infant  colony.   When  a  party  of  campers 
in  the  heart  of  Kentucky  heard  the  news  of  the  first  battle  of 
the    Revolution,    they    enthusiastically    christened    their   camp 
"  Lexington."     In    the   Watauga   settlement    the   Tories  were 
drummed  out  of  camp  several  months  before  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  was  adopted.    Soon  after  that  event  Kentucky, 
through  its  self-constituted  legislature,  petitioned  Congress  to  be 
received  as  the  fourteenth  state  of  the  Union,  and  sent  a  dele 
gation  to  Patrick  Henry,  governor  of  Virginia,  to  offer  that 
state  the  services  of  "  a  respectable  body  of  prime  riflemen." 


148         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

186.  George        One  of  these  delegates  was  George  Rogers  Clark,  a  young 
Rogers  ciark    yjrgjnian  scarcely  past  twenty,  with  a  dash  of  Cavalier  blood 

in  his  veins,  —  tall,  straight,  and  stanchly  built,  "  with  unquailing 
blue  eyes  that  looked  out  from  under  heavy  brows."  As  a  sur 
veyor  on  the  upper  Ohio  Clark  had  cast  in  his  lot  with  the 
Kentucky  settlers,  where  he  soon  became  a  leader,  like  that 
other  young  Virginia  surveyor  of  gentle  blood,  —  tall,  sturdy, 
and  blue-eyed,  —  who  twenty  years  before  had  led  the  first  ex 
pedition  to  make  good  English  claims  to  the  region  beyond  the 
Alleghenies.  On  his  return  to  Kentucky,  Clark  conceived  and 
executed  a  plan  of  campaign  which  entitles  him  to  be  called  the 
Washington  of  the  West.  Sending  spies  across  the  Ohio  to  the 
Illinois  country,  he  learned  that  the  Indians  and  French  there 
were  only  lukewarm  in  their  allegiance  to  their  new  English 
masters.  He  therefore  determined  to  seize  this  huge  territory 
for  the  patriot  cause,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1777  again  traveled 
over  the  Wilderness  Road  to  lay  his  plans  before  Governor 
Patrick  Henry. 

187.  ciark          Henry,  Jefferson,  Wyeth,  Mason,  and  other  prominent  Virgin- 
northwestern  ians  approved  Clark's  bold  scheme,  but  the  utmost  that  the 
1778-1779'        state   could   do   for  him   was   to   authorize   him   to   raise   350 

men  and  advance  him  $1200  in  depreciated  currency.  It  was 
a  poor  start  for  the  conquest  of  a  region  as  large  as  New 
England,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania  combined,  but  Clark 
belonged  to  the  men  of  genius  who  persist  in  accomplish 
ing  tasks  which  men  of  judgment  pronounce  impossible.  The 
story  of  his  exploits  reads  more  like  one  of  James  Fenimore 
Cooper's  fanciful  Indian  tales  than  like  sober  history ;  how  he 
surprised  the  post  at  Kaskaskia  without  a  blow,  and,  by  in 
trepid  assurance  and  skillful  diplomacy,  induced  the  French  and 
Indians  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  to  transfer  their  allegiance 
from  the  British  Empire  to  the  new  American  republic ;  how, 
when  he  learned  that  Colonel  Hamilton,  the  British  commander 
at  Detroit,  had  seized  the  fort  of  Vincennes  on  the  Wabash,  he 
immediately  marched  his  men  in  mid-winter  over  two  hundred 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation 


149 


miles  across  the  "  drowned  lands  "  of  Illinois,  sometimes  wading 
through  icy  water  up  to  their  chins,  sometimes  shivering  supper- 
less  on  some  .bleak  knoll,  but  always  courageous  and  confident, 
until  he  appeared  before  the  post  of  Vincennes  and  summoned 
the  wonderstricken  Hamilton  to  an  immediate  and  unconditional 
surrender  (February,  1779).  The  capture  of  Vincennes  was  the 
deathblow  of  the  British  power  north  of  the  Ohio. 


Clark's  Virginians  crossing  the  "  Drowned  Lands  "  of  Illinois 

It  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  services  of  Boone, 
of  Robertson,  of  Sevier,  and,  above  all,  of  George  Rogers  Clark, 
in  winning  the  western  region  just  at  the  moment  when  the  colo 
nies  on  the  seaboard  were  establishing  and  defending  their  inde 
pendence.  When  the  negotiations  for  peace  with  Great  Britain 
were  opened,  it  was  the  achievement  of  these  pioneer  conquer 
ors  that  emboldened  the  new  American  republic  to  insist  on  the 
Mississippi  instead  of  the  Alleghenies  as  its  boundary  on  the 
west,  and  the  Great  Lakes  instead  of  the  Ohio  as  its  boundary 
on  the  north. 


150         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

PEACE 

188.  Effect  of       When  the  news  of  Cornwallis's  surrender  at  Yorktown  reached 
sunenderon     Lord  North,  he  threw  up  his  hands  and  exclaimed,  "  My  God ! 

the  British      ^  j    aj|  over_»  The  stubborn  king  was  not  so  ready  to  read  in 
government  J 

Yorktown  the  doom  of  his  tenacious  policy  of  coercion.  Always 

mistaking  the  satisfaction  of  his  royal  will  for  the  salvation  of 
the  British  Empire,  he  stormed  against  the  rising  sentiment  for 
peace  with  America,  and  wrote  letters  of  petulant  bombast  to 
his  prime  minister,  threatening  to  resign  the  British  crown  and 
retire  to  his  ancestral  domains  in  Germany.  But  threats  and 
entreaties  were  of  no  avail.  The  nation  was  sick  of  the  rule 
of  the  "King's  Friends,"  and  the  early  months  of  1782  saw 
George  III  compelled  to  part  with  Lord  North,  and  receive 
into  his  service,  if  not  into  his  confidence,  the  Whig  statesmen 
(Pitt,  Fox,  Burke)  whose  sympathy  for  America  had  been  con 
stant  and  outspoken.  Diplomatic  agents  were  sent  to  Paris  to 
discuss  terms  of  peace  with  the  American  commissioners,  Jay, 
Franklin,  and  John  Adams. 

189.  compii-       The  situation  was- a  very  complicated  one.   The  United  States, 
by  the  alii-      by  the  treaty  of  alliance  with  France  in  1778,  had  pledged  itself 
tea*  France*"  not  to  ma^e  a  separate  peace  with  England.    Then  the  French 
and  Spain        had  drawn  Spain  into  the  war,  with  the  promise  of  recovering 

for  her  the  island  of  Jamaica  in  the  West  Indies  (taken  by 
Oliver  Cromwell's  fleet  in  1655)  and  the  rock  fortress  of  Gib 
raltar  (captured  by  the  English  in  1704).  The  Franco- American 
alliance  had  been  successful,  as  we  have  seen,  in  defeating  the 
British  invasion  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  thus  assuring  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  United  States.  But  the  bolder  Franco-Spanish 
design  of  destroying  the  naval  supremacy  of  Great  Britain  and 
dividing  up  her  colonial  empire  had  entirely  failed.  It  soon 
became  evident  to  the  American  diplomats  at  Paris  that  France 
was  scheming  to  find  consolation  for  her  defeated  ally,  Spain,  at 
the  expense  of  her  victorious  ally,  America.  In  fact,  Vergennes, 
the  French  minister,  had  prepared  a  map  on  which  the  United 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation  1  5  1 

States  figured  as  the  same  old  colonial  strip  between  the  Al- 
leghenies  and  the  sea,  while  the  western  region  north  of  the 
Ohio  was  to  be  restored  to  England,  and  that  south  of  the  Ohio 
to  the  Indians,  partly  under  American  and  partly  under  Spanish 
protection  (see  map).  Thus  the  new  republic  was  to  be  robbed 
of  the  fruits  of  the  labors  of  Boone,  Sevier,  Robertson,  and 
Clark,  and  the  Mississippi  was  to  be  a  Spanish  stream.  "  This 
court  is  interested  in  separating  us  from  Great  Britain,"  wrote 
Jay  from  Paris,  "but  it  is  not  their  interest  that  we  should 
become  a  great  and  formidable  people." 

Yet  we  were  greatly  beholden  to  France.    Her  aid  in  men,  190.  our 


ships,  and  money  had  been  so  timely  and  generous  that  it  is 


almost  certain  that  without  it  the  American  cause  would  have 
been  lost.  The  Continental  Congress,  resorting  to  every  possible 
device,  —  requisitions  on  the  states,  confiscation  of  Tory  estates, 
domestic  loans,  even  a  national  lottery,  —  could  raise  only  a 
small  fraction  of  the  money  needed  to  carry  on  the  war.  By 
1778  it  had  issued  $100,000,000  of  paper  money,  which  was 
rapidly  coming  to  be  worth  hardly  more  than  the  paper  on 
which  it  was  printed.  The  bracing  effect  on  our  languishing 
finances  of  the  arrival  of  $6,000,000  in  hard  French  gold 
can  easily  be  imagined.  Our  commissioners  in  Paris,  there 
fore,  were  instructed  by  Congress  not  to  proceed  in  the  peace 
negotiations  without  the  consent  and  concurrence  of  the  French 
ministry. 

The  critical  question  before  Jay,  Adams,  and  Franklin  was  191.  The 
whether  or  not  they  should  obey  their  instructions  from  Con- 
gress  and  refuse  to  conclude  a  favorable  peace  with  the  willing 
Whig  ministry  of  England,  merely  because  France  was  anxious  land,  1783 
to  rob  the  new  republic  of  her  western  conquests  and  recompense 
Spain  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  for  what  she  had  failed  to  get 
in  the  West  Indies  and  in  the  Mediterranean.    The  commis 
sioners,  following  Jay's  advice,  disobeyed  Congress,  violated  the 
treaty  of  alliance  with  France,  and  concluded  the  peace  with     f 
England  alone,  thereby  securing  the  unbroken  continent  from 


152         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi.  But  it  took  all  the  tact  and 
shrewd  suavity  of  Benjamin  Franklin  to  make  the  French 
ministry  accept  the  terms  of  the  treaty  with  even  tolerable 
good  grace. 

192.  Terms         There  were  difficult  points  in  the  negotiations  with  England 
of  i783Pe<        too,  despite  the  desire  of  both  sides  to  come  to  terms.  The  British 

ministry  readily  acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  United 
States,  and  made  but  slight  protest  against  its  extension  west 
ward  to  the  Mississippi.  England  also  conceded  to  the  United 
States  the  valuable  privilege  of  sharing  the  Newfoundland  fish 
eries.  But  the  questions  of  debts  due  to  English  merchants  from 
the  colonists  before  the  war,  and  the  treatment  of  the  American 
Loyalists,  or  Tories,  were  very  troublesome.  The  American  Con 
gress  had  no  money  of  its  own,  and  had  no  authority  to  dispose 
of  the  funds  of  the  states.  It  could  not,  therefore,  give  the  British 
ministry  any  sufficient  guarantee  that  the  debts  would  be  paid. 
John  Adams  might  assure  William  Pitt  with  some  asperity  and 
indignation  that  the  Americans  had  "  no  idea  of  cheating  any 
body,"  but  the  declaration  looked  to  Pitt  remarkably  like  Mr. 
Adams's  private  opinion  merely.  This  matter  of  the  debts  might 
have  frustrated  the  peace  negotiations  entirely,  had  not  the 
British  supplemented  the  American  assurances  of  good  will  by 
the  secret  plan  to  hold  on  to  the  valuable  fur-trading  posts  along 
the  Great  Lakes  from  Oswego  to  Mackinaw  until  the  debts 
were  paid. 

193.  The  Still  more  delicate  was  the  question  of  the  treatment  of  the 
Loyalists,  or    Loyalists.  Tens  of  thousands  of  the  American  colonists  had  been 

opposed  to  the  war  with  the  mother  country,  —  some  out  of 
prudent  anxiety  lest  the  war  would  entail  business  ruin  and 
the  general  disorder,  others  from  an  optimistic  belief  that  in 
spite  of  "  Grenville's  well-meant  blunder  and  Townshend's  ma 
licious  challenge,"  the  situation  could  be  "  rectified  without  the 
disruption  of  the  Empire."  The  more  ardent  of  these  Loyalists 
denounced  the  Congress  in  unmeasured  terms  as  a  collection  of 
quarrelsome,  pettifogging  lawyers  and  mechanics;  and  when 


THE  UNITED  STATES 

in  1783 


Showing  Western  Land  Claims  of 

States  and  the  Boundaries 

fixed  by  Treaty  of  1783 

Also  the  boundaries  proposed 

by  the  French  Court, 

Sept.  6,  1782 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation  1 5  3 

the  Declaration  of  Independence  put  them  in  the  position  of 
traitors,  thousands  of  them  entered  the  British  armies.  To 
abandon  these  allies,  who,  at  the  sacrifice  of  their  property  and 
reputation  in  America,  had  obeyed  King  George's  call  to  all 
loyal  citizens  to  aid  in  putting  down  rebellion,  seemed  to  the 
British  ministry  an  unpardonable  piece  of  ingratitude  and  in 
justice.  It  thought  that  the  American  Congress  should  restore 
to  these  Loyalists  their  confiscated  estates  (valued  at  some 
$20,000,000)  or  reimburse  them  with  the  territory  north  of 
the  Ohio,  which  Clark  had  conquered. 

But  in  the  breasts  of  the  American  patriots  the  thought  of  the  194.  The 
Tories  roused  bitter  memories.  It  was  not  alone  their  jibes  and  view"5* 
insults,  their  vilification  of  the  character  of  Washington  and  his 
associates,  their  steady  encouragement  of  desertion  and  mutiny 
in  the  American  army,  or  their  own  appearance  in  the  uniform 
of  the  king's  troops.  Congress  remembered  how,  in  the  dark 
winter  of  1776,  when  Washington  was  vainly  imploring  the 
farmers  of  New  Jersey  for  food  for  his  destitute  soldiers,  the 
Tory  squires  of  the  state  were  selling  Lord  Howe  their  rich 
harvests  at  good  prices,  to  feed  the  British  invaders ;  and  how 
in  the  still  darker  winter  that  followed,  while  Washington's 
starving  and  shivering  army  at  Valley  Forge  was  losing  more 
men  by  desertion  daily  than  it  was  gaining  by  recruiting,  the 
Tory  drawing-rooms  of  Philadelphia  were  gay  with  festivities  in 
honor  of  the  British  officers.  It  was  a  hard  thing  to  ask  the 
new  country,  already  burdened  with  a  war  debt  of  $135,000,- 
ooo,  with  its  political  life  to  establish  on  a  firm  basis  and  its 
industries  and  commerce  to  organize  anew,  to  recompense  the 
men  who  had  done  their  utmost  to  wreck  the  patriot  cause, 
—  men  whom  even  the  careful  tongue  of  Washington  called 
"  detestable  parricides  !  " 

The  British  ministry  finally  gave  way  on  this  important  ques-   195.  The 
tion,  accepting  the  assurance  of  the  American  commissioners 
that  Congress  would  do  nothing  to  hinder  such  Loyalists  as  had  terms 
not  borne  arms  against  the  United  States  from  recovering  their 


Group  of  Famous  Revolutionary  Buildings 

Faneuil  Hall,  Boston ;  Old  South  Church,  Boston  ;  Independence  Hall, 
Philadelphia ;  Old  State  House,  Boston 

154 


The  Birth  of  the  Nation  1 5  5 

property  through  the  courts  of  each  state.  The  British  govern 
ment  itself  came  to  the  aid  of  the  "  active  "  Loyalists,  granting 
them  liberal  pensions  and  land  in  Canada.  Europe  was  amazed 
at  England's  generosity.  "  The  English  buy  the  peace  rather 
than  make  it,"  wrote  Vergennes ;  "  their  concessions  as  to 
boundaries,  the  fisheries,  the  Loyalists,  exceed  everything  I  had 
thought  possible."  It  was  a  complete  if  a  tardy  triumph  of 
that  feeling  of  sympathy  for  men  of  common  blood,  common 
language,  traditions,  and  institutions,  across  the  seas,  which  had 
been  so  long  struggling  to  find  a  voice  in  the  corrupt  councils 
of  the  English  court. 

On  the  eighteenth  of  April,  1783,  the  eighth  anniversary  of  196.  The  re- 
the  night  when  Paul  Revere  roused  the  minutemen  of  Lexing-  Washington 
ton  to  meet  the  British  regulars  on  the  village  green,  Washington  December, 
proclaimed  hostilities  at  an  end ;  and,  by  the  splendid  example 
of  his  single-minded  patriotism,  persuaded  men  and  officers  to 
go  to  their  homes  "  without  a  farthing  in  their  pockets,"  confi 
dent  in  the  power  and  good  will  of  their  new  government  to 
reward  them  according  to  their  deserts.    The  final  articles  of 
peace  were  signed  September  3,  1783.    On  November  23  the 
last  British  soldiers  in  America  sailed  out  of  New  York  harbor, 
and  a  few  days  later  Washington  bade  his  officers  an  affection 
ate  farewell  in  the  long  hall  of  Fraunces'  Tavern,  and  retired  to 
his  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  there,  as  he  hoped,  "  to  glide  gently 
down  the  stream  of  time  until  he  rested  with  his  fathers." 

REFERENCES 

The  Declaration  of  Independence :  C.  H.  VAN  TYNE,  The  American 
Revolution  (American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  iv-vi ;  JOHN  FISKE,  The 
American  Revolution,  Vol.  I,  chap,  iv;  JUSTIN  WINSOR,  Narrative  and 
Critical  History  of  America,  Vol.  VI,  chap,  iii ;  Cambridge  Modern  His 
tory,  Vol.  VII,  chap,  vi ;  G.  OTTO  TREVELYAN,  The  American  Revolution, 
Vol.  II,  Part  I,  pp.  105-158  ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Con 
temporaries,  Vol.  II,  Nos.  184-188. 

The  Revolutionary  War :  VAN  TYNE,  chaps,  vii-xvii ;  TREVELYAN, 
Vols.  I-III  (to  1777) ;  FISKE,  Vols.  I,  II ;  W.  M.  SLOANE,  The  French 


156         Separation  of  the  Colonies  from  England 

War  and  the  Revolution,  chaps,  xx-xxviii ;  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT,  The 
Winning  of  the  West,  Vols.  II,  III ;  H.  C.  LODGE,  The  Story  of  the  Revo 
lution  ;  WILLIAM  H.  ENGLISH,  The  Conquest  of  the  Country  Northwest 
of  the  Ohio ;  W.  H.  LECKY,  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century 
(ed.  Woodburn),  chap.  ii. 

Peace:  JOHN  FISKE,  The  Critical  Period  of  American  History,  chap,  i; 
A.  C.  MCLAUGHLIN,  The  Confederation  and  the  Constitution  (Am. Nation), 
chaps,  i-iii;  HART,  Vol.  II,  Nos.  215-220;  LECKY  (ed.  Woodburn), 
chap,  iv;  WINSOR,  Vol.  VII,  chap,  ii ;  WILLIAM  MACDONALD,  Select 
Documents  of  United  States  History,  1776-1861,  No.  3  (for  text  of  treaty). 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1 .  Thomas  Paine' s  Contribution  to  American  Independence  :  TREVELYAN, 
Vol.  II,  Part  I,  pp.  147-155  ;  HART,  Vol.  II,  Nos.  159,  186;  VAN  TYNE, 
pp.  61-65,  I29»  M.  C.  TYLER,  Literary  History  of  the  American  Revolu 
tion,  Vol.  I,  pp.  452-471  ;  M.  D.  CONWAY,  Life  of  Thomas  Paine  (use 
index). 

2.  Lafayette  in  the  American  Revolution  :  Old  South  Leaflets,  Nos.  97, 
98  ;   FISKE,   The  American  Revolution,  Vol.  II,  pp.  206—208,  234,  240— 
243,  280-295  ;  SLOANE,  pp.  264,  292,  324-344. 

3.  The  Tories:    TYLER,  Vol.  I,  pp.  293-313;    TREVELYAN,  Vol.  II, 
Part  II,  pp.  226-240;   HART,  Vol.  II,  Nos.  166-169  ;  VAN  TYNE,   The 
Loyalists  in  the  American  Revolution,  pp.  1-59;  TYLER,  The  Party  of  the 
Loyalists  (American  Historical  Review,  Vol.  I,  pp.  24  ff.). 

4.  Daniel  Boone,  a  Pioneer  to  the  West:   A.  B.  HURLBURT,  Boone's 
Wilderness  Road,  pp.  1-47  ;   H.  A.  BRUCE,    The  Romance  of  American 
Expansion,  pp.  1-24 ;  ROOSEVELT,  Vol.1,  pp.  134-136;  J.  R.  SPEARS, 
The  History  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  pp.  183-208  ;  R.  G.  THWAITES, 
Life  of  Daniel  Boone. 

5.  Washington's  Trials  with  the  Army  and  Congress:    FISKE,    The 
American  Revolution,  Vol.  II,  pp.  24-46,  62-72;    The  Critical  Period  of 
American  History,  pp.  101-119;  HART,  Vol.  II,  Nos.  174,  195,  198,  206; 
SLOANE,  pp.  370-378 ;  VAN  TYNE,  The  American  Revolution,  pp.  236- 
247  ;  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  47. 


PART  III.    THE  NEW  REPUBLIC 


PART  III.    THE  NEW  REPUBLIC 

CHAPTER  VI 
THE  CONSTITUTION 

THE  CRITICAL  PERIOD 

With  the  Revolutionary  War  the  first  great  epoch  of  Ameri-  197.  End  of 
can  history,  the  colonial  period,  came  to  an  end.  The  English 
colonies  became  an  independent  nation,  and  the  political  con 
nections  with  the  great  British  Empire  were  severed.  Royal 
governors,  councilors,  judges,  customs  officers,  and  agents  dis 
appeared,  and  their  places  were  taken  by  men  chosen  by  the 
people  of  the  new  states,  —  public  servants  instead  of  public 
masters.  Fortunately  the  break  with  Great  Britain  had  not  come 
before  the  serious  and  aggressive  French  rivals  of  the  English 
in  the  New  World  had  been  subdued,  and  the  country  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi  had  been  won  for  men  of  English 
speech,  blood,  tradition,  and  law. 

The  two  great  facts  of  the  separation  of  the  colonies  from  198.  Tasks 
England,  and  the  possession  of  a  vast  western  territory  to  be 
settled  and  organized,  determined  the  chief  activities  of  the  new 
republic.  First  of  all,  the  United  States,  unless  that  name  were 
to  be  a  mere  mockery,  must  devise  a  form  of  government  to  in 
sure  a  national  union;  and,  in  the  second  place,  the  national 
government  must  be  extended  westward  as  the  new  domain 
beyond  the  mountains  developed.  We  have  studied  the  winning 
of  American  independence.  We  turn  now  to  a  study  of  the 
American  Union. 


i6o 


The  New  Republic 


199.  The 

nature  and 
authority  of 
Congress, 
1776-1789 


200.  The 
Articles  of 
Confedera 
tion,  1777-1781 


Thirteen  years  elapsed  between  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence  (1776)  and  the  inauguration  of  George  Washington  as 
first  President  of  the  United  States  (1789).  During  those  years 
our  country  was  governed  by  a  Congress,  —  a  body  which  must 
be  carefully  distinguished  from  our  present  national  Congress. 
To-day  Congress  means  a  group  of  about  500  men,  elected  by 
the  people  and  the  legislatures  of  the  various  states,  to  meet 
in  annual  session  at  the  Capitol  at  Washington  and  make  laws 
for  our  country.  The  authority  of  Congress  extends  over  every 
citizen  of  the  United  States ;  its  sphere  includes  such  important 
powers  as  levying  taxes,  regulating  commerce,  making  war  and 
peace,  coining  money,  and  admitting  new  states  to  the  Union.  But 
the  Congress  of  1775-1788  was  a  far  different  thing.  It  con 
sisted  of  a  group  of  delegations  of  from  two  to  seven  members 
apiece,  sent  by  each  state  to  a  general  meeting  at  Philadelphia. 
Until  a  few  months  before  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  at  York- 
town  this  Congress  was  without  legal  authority,  or  any  written 
constitution  defining  its  powers.  Its  members,  acting  on  instruc 
tions  from  their  states,  or  relying  on  the  indorsement  of  their 
states,  assumed  very  important  functions  of  government.  They 
raised  and  officered  an  army,  assessed  the  states  for  its  support, 
declared  the  colonies  independent  of  England,  borrowed  money 
abroad  on  the  credit  of  the  new  United  States,  rejected  the  British 
offer  of  reconciliation  in  1778,  and  concluded  treaties  of  com 
merce  and  alliance  with  France.  But  the  Continental  Congress 
could  assume  these  vast  powers  of  government  without  express 
authority  only  because  the  pressure  of  war  united  the  colonies 
for  the  moment  and  made  a  central  directing  body  an  immediate 
necessity.  For  the  Union  to  endure  after  the  pressure  of  war 
was  over,  a  regular  national  government  had  to  be  established. 
About  a  year  before  the  colonies  declared  their  independence 
Benjamin  Franklin,  a  lifelong  advocate  of  colonial  union,  sub 
mitted  to  this  Congress  a  draft  of  "  Articles  of  Confederation 
and  Perpetual  Union"  (July  21,  1775).  But  too  many  of  the 
members  of  Congress  still  hoped  for  a  peaceful  settlement  with 


The  Constitution  161 

England  to  make  this  plan  acceptable.  When  independence  was 
declared,  however,  the  necessity  of  forming  a  government  be 
came  obvious.  In  response  to  a  clause  in  Lee's  famous  motion 
of  independence  a  committee  of  one  from  each  of  the  thirteen 
colonies,  with  John  Dickinson  of  Pennsylvania  as  chairman,  was 
appointed  "  to  prepare  a  plan  of  confederation  and  transmit  it 
to  the  respective  colonies  for  their  consideration  and  approba 
tion."  The  Articles  of  Confederation  were  duly  composed,  and, 
being  approved  by  Congress  in  November,  1777,  were  sent  to 
the  various  states  for  ratification.  But  more  than  three  years 
elapsed  before  the  last  of  the  states,  Maryland,  assented  to  the 
Articles  and  so  made  them  the  law  of  the  land  (March  i,  1781). 

The  delay  of  Maryland  in  accepting  the  Articles  of  Confedera-  201.  The 
tion  was  due  to  an  important  cause  and  resulted  in  a  great  benefit  westerniands 
to  the  nation.  The  states  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Virginia,  Jj^J^J1  of 
North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia  claimed  land  between  the  states 
Alleghenies  and  the  Mississippi  by  virtue  of  their  old  colonial 
charters,  which  gave  them  indefinite  westward  extension.  Vir 
ginia's  claim,  which  overlapped  that  of  both  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut,  was  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  George  Rogers 
Clark  had  actually  conquered  the  vast  territory  north  of  the  Ohio 
under  commission  from  the  governor  of  Virginia.  New  York  also 
maintained  a.  claim  to  part  of  the  same  disputed  territory  on  ac 
count  of  a  treaty  with  the  Iroquois  Indians,  which  had  put  those 
tribes  under  her  protection  (1768).  The  states  whose  western 
boundaries  were  fixed  by  their  charters,  like  Maryland,  New 
Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  were  at  a  disadvantage,  since  they 
had  no  western  lands  with  which  to  reward  their  veterans  of  the 
Revolution.  Maryland,  therefore,  insisted,  before  accepting  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  that  the  states  with  western  claims 
should  surrender  them  to  the  United  States,  and  that  all  the  land 
between  the  Alleghenies  and  the  Mississippi  should  be  national 
domain.  After  some  parleying,  New  York,  in  1780,  led  the  way 
in  surrendering  its  claims.  Virginia,  with  noble  generosity,  gave 
up  her  far  better  founded  claims  to  the  whole  region  north  of 


1 62  The  New  Republic 

the  Ohio,  in  1784.  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  the  Car- 
olinas  quickly  followed  suit,  though  Georgia,  partly  on  account 
of  complications  with  Spain,  maintained  her  claims  as  far  west 
as  the  Mississippi  until  1802.  By  these  cessions  the  United 
States  acquired  an  immense  national  domain,  the  sale  of  which 
could  be  applied  to  the  payment  of  the  Revolutionary  War 
debt,  and  from  whose  territory  new  states  could  be  formed.  It 
was  the  beginning  of  a  truly  national  power,  and  honor  is  due 
to  the  state  of  Maryland  for  insisting  on  this  fair  and  wise  policy. 
202.  criti-  The  Articles  of  Confederation,  though  announcing  a  "  perpet- 
Articies  of  ual  union  "  and  a  "  firm  league  of  friendship  "  of  the  thirteen 
states,  remained  in  force  only  eight  years,  and  failed  utterly  to 
bring  strength  or  harmony  into  the  Union.  They  were  but  an 
experiment  in  government.  The  defects  of  the  Articles  may  be 
summed  up  in  a  single  clause :  they  failed  to  give  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  enough  authority  to  run  the  government. 
At  the  very  outset  they  declared  that  "  each  state  retained  its 
sovereignty,  freedom,  and  independence,"  and  all  through  them 
the  unwillingness  to  force  the  states  to  part  with  any  of  their 
power  is  evident.  For  example,  Congress  pledged  the  faith  of 
the  United  States  to  pay  the  war  debt,  yet  it  had  neither  the  power 
to  demand,  nor  the  machinery  to  collect,  a  single  penny  from  any 
citizen  or  state  of  the  Union.  It  could  only  make  "  requisitions  " 
on  the  states,  and  its  repeated  requests  for  money  met  with 
meager  response.  Gouverneur  Morris  called  it  a  "government 
by  supplication."  The  budget  for  1781-1782  was  $9,000,000. 
Of  this  Congress  negotiated  for  $4,000,000  by  a  foreign  loan, 
and  assessed  the  states  for  the  other  $5,000,000.  After  a  year's 
delay  some  $450,000  of  the  $5,000,000  asked  for  was  paid  in, 
and  not  a  dollar  came  from  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  or  Dela 
ware.  So,  from  year  to  year,  the  "government  by  supplica 
tion  "  worried  along,  asking  millions  and  getting  a  few  hundred 
thousands,  in  imminent  danger  of  going  bankrupt  by  failing 
to  pay  the  interest  on  its  debt,  with  scarcely  enough  revenue, 
as  one  statesman  said  with  pardonable  exaggeration,  "  to  buy 


The  Constitution  163 

stationery  for  its  clerks  or  pay  the  salary  of  a  doorkeeper."  The 
impotence  of  Congress  in  financial  matters  was  only  one  example 
of  the  general  inadequacy  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation.  They 
put  on  the  central  government  certain  grave  responsibilities, 
such  as  defending  the  land  from  its  foes,  maintaining  its  credit, 
preserving  order  at  home,  and  securing  friendships  abroad  ;  and 
yet  they  gave  the  central  government  no  means  of  enforcing 
obedience  to  its  will.  Congress  had  no  executive  power,  no 
national  courts  of  justice  in  which  to  condemn  offenders  against 
its  laws,  no  control  of  commerce,  no  machinery  of  taxation,  no 
check  on  the  indiscriminate  issue  by  the  states  of  money  of 
differing  values,  no  efficient  army  or  navy. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  so  weak  a  government  failed  to  inspire  203.  our 
respect  abroad  or  obedience  at  home.    England,  in  defiance  of 


the  treaty  of  1783,  still  held  the  fur-trading  posts  of  the  North-  the  European 

powers 
west,  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  commercial  confusion  of 

thirteen  separate  tariff  codes  in  the  United  States,  refused  to 
admit  us  on  fair  terms  to  a  share  in  her  maritime  trade.  The 
French  ministers  told  Jefferson  plainly  in  Paris  that  it  was 
impossible  to  recognize  the  Congress  as  a  government.  The 
Spanish  governor  at  New  Orleans  offered  the  western  fron 
tiersmen  the  use  of  the  Mississippi  if  they  would  renounce 
their  allegiance  to  the  United  States  and  come  under  the  flag 
of  Spain.  The  thrifty  merchants  of  Amsterdam  were  on  tenter 
hooks  for  fear  that  the  interest  on  their  loans  to  the  new  re 
public  would  not  be  paid.  And  finally  even  the  Mohammedan 
pirates  of  the  Barbary  States  in  northern  Africa  levied  black 
mail  on  our  vessels  which  ventured  into  the  Mediterranean.  The 
government  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation  "  had  touched 
that  lowest  point  of  ignominy  where  it  confessed  its  inability  to 
protect  the  lives  and  property  of  its  citizens." 

At  home  anarchy  was  imminent.    The  glowing  sentences  in  204.  The 
which  patriots  on  the  eve  of  the  Revolution  had  declared  them- 
selves  no    longer   Virginians    or   Carolinians,    but   henceforth  home 
Americans,  were  forgotten  when  peace  was  made.  The  states, 


164  The  New  Republic 

with  their  conflicting  commercial  and  agricultural  interests,  their 
diverse  social  and  religious  inheritances  from  early  colonial  days, 
their  strong  sense  of  local  independence,  nurtured  by  long  de 
fense  against  British  officials  and  strengthened  by  the  meager- 
ness  of  intercolonial  trade  and  travel,  were  jealous  to  preserve 
their  individuality  unimpaired.  They  indulged  in  petty  tariff 
wars  against  one  another,  the  defeated  party  often  seeking  a 
spiteful  consolation  in  refusing  to  pay  its  contribution  to  Con 
gress.  Boundary  disputes  were  frequent  and  fierce.  The  farmers 
of  New  York  and  Connecticut  fought  over  the  region  of  Ver 
mont  like  bands  of  Indians  on  the  warpath,  "  with  all  the 
horrors  of  ambuscade  and  arson  "  ;  Pennsylvania  allowed  the 
Indians  of  the  Wyoming  valley  to  scalp  New  Englanders  as 
"intruders."  Congress  was  powerless  to  prevent  states  from 
plunging  into  the  folly  of  issuing  large  sums  of  paper  money 
to  ease  the  debtor  class.  It  looked  on  in  distressed  impotence 
while  thriving  towns  like  Newport  were  brought  to  the  edge 
of  ruin  by  wild  financial  legislation,1  and  the  ancient  and  digni 
fied  commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  had  to  subdue  an  armed 
mob  of  1500  rebels  of  the  debtor  class,  led  by  a  captain  of 
the  Revolution  named  Daniel  Shays,  who  closed  the  courts  at 
Worcester  and  attacked  the  United  States  arsenal  at  Springfield 
(1786-1787). 

205.  The  As  the  weakness  of  Congress  became  more  evident  its  dig- 
Congress  nity  declined.  The  foremost  statesmen  preferred  to  serve  their 
own  states  rather  than  to  sit  in  a  national  assembly  without 
power.  Each  state  was  entitled  to  seven  representatives  in  Con 
gress  by  the  terms  of  the  Articles,  making  a  house  of  ninety-one 
members.  But  there  were  seldom  more  than  a  quarter  of  that 
number  in  attendance.  Some  states  went  unrepresented  for 

1  A  French  visitor  to  America  during  this  distressing  period  saw  in  Newport 
"  groups  of  idle  men  standing  with  folded  arms  at  the  corners  of  the  streets, 
houses  falling  to  ruin,  miserable  shops  with  nothing  but  a  few  coarse  stuffs,  grass 
growing  in. the  public  square  in  front  of  the  court  of  justice,  and  rags  stuffed  in 
the  windows  or  hung  on  hideous  women  "  (Brissot  de  Warville,  Travels  in  America, 
ed.  of  1791,?.  HS)- 


The  Constitution  165 

months  at  a  time.  Only  twenty  members  were  in  session  to  re 
ceive  George  Washington  and  to  express  to  him  the  country's 
gratitude  for  his  invaluable  services  on  the  most  solemn  occa-  , 
sion  of  his  surrender  of  the  command  of  the  American  army  in 
December,  1783.  Only  twenty-three  assembled  the  next  month 
to  ratify  the  treaty  of  peace  with  England.  Finally,  the  attend 
ance  dwindled  away  to  a  few  scattering  representatives,  until 
from  October,  1788,  to  April,  1789,  not  enough  members  assem 
bled  to  make  a  quorum,  and  there  was  absolutely  no  United 
States  government. 

It  is  a  relief  to  be  able  to  point  to  one  piece  of  statesmanlike  206.  The 
and  constructive  work  done  by  the  poor  tottering  government  ordinance, 
of  the  Confederation  in  these  dismal  years,  fitly  called  "  the  crit-  July  I3'  I787 
ical  period  of  American  history."  The  large  domain  between 
the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Ohio,  which  had  become  the  property 
of  the  United  States  by  the  abandonment  of  the  claims  of  the 
states  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  Virginia, 
was  organized  by  Congress  into  the  Northwest  Territory,  July 
13,  1787.  The  act  of  organization,  called  the  Northwest  Ordi 
nance,  provided  for  three  judges  to  govern  the  territory  until  the 
population  was  large  enough  for  a  regular  democratic,  represent 
ative  government.  It  also  provided  that  the  citizens  of  the  ter 
ritory  should  enjoy  complete  political  and  religious  liberty,  that 
a  system  of  free  public  education  should  be  introduced,  that 
eventually  from  three  to  five  new  states  should  be  carved  out 
of  the  territory,  and  that  slavery  should  forever  be  excluded  from 
the  domain.1  Within  a  year  colonists  from  Massachusetts,  sent 
out  by  the  Ohio  Company,  founded  the  town  of  Marietta  in  what 
is  now  southern  Ohio,  and,  with  the  establishment  of  county 
government  and  courts,  the  Northwest  Ordinance  was  put  into 
operation  (April,  1788). 

1  This  territory  was  essentially  the  same  as  that  reserved  in  Vergennes'  plan 
of  1782  for  further  negotiations  between  England  and  the  United  States  (see 
map,  opposite  p.  152).  Out  of  it  were  formed  later  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin,  with  a  small  piece  of  Minnesota. 


1 66 


The  New  Republic 


207.  Great 
significance 
of  the  Ordi 
nance 


208.  Propo 
sals  to 
remedy  the 
defects  of  the 
Articles  of 
Confederation 


209.  The  Mt 
Vernon  and 
Annapolis 
Conventions, 
1785-1786 


As  the  first  law  for  the  government  of  national  territory,  this 
ordinance  declared  that  the  extension  of  the  power  of  the  United 
States  into  the  western  wilderness  was  to  be  at  the  same  time 
the  extension  of  the  blessings  of  enlightenment,  tolerance,  and 
freedom.  Daniel  Webster,  in  a  speech  in  the  United  States  Sen 
ate  forty  years  later,  said,  "  I  doubt  whether  any  single  law  of 
any  lawgiver  ancient  or  modern  has  produced  effects  of  more 
distinct  and  lasting  character  than  the  Ordinance  of  1787." 

"A  MORE  PERFECT  UNION" 

The  inadequacy  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation  was  recog 
nized  from  the  beginning  by  some  of  the  wisest  of  our  states 
men.  These  Articles  had  been  in  operation  (if  one  can  speak  of 
their  "  operating  "  at  all)  little  more  than  a  month  when  James 
Madison  of  Virginia  proposed  (April,  1781)  that  they  should  be 
amended  so  as  to  give  the  United  States  "  full  authority  to  em 
ploy  force  by  sea  as  well  as  by  land  to  compel  any  delinquent 
state  to  fulfill  its  federal  obligations,"  or,  in  other  words,  to  pay 
its  share  of  the  federal  assessment.  After  the  peace  with  Eng 
land,  two  years  later,  Washington  wrote  in  a  circular  letter  to 
the  governors  of  the  states,  "  There  should  be  lodged  some 
where  a  supreme  power  to  regulate  the  general  concerns  of 
the  Confederated  Republic,  without  which  this  Union  cannot  be 
of  long  duration."  Again  in  1784,  he  wrote,  "  I  predict  the  worst 
consequences  for  a  half-starved  limping  government,  always 
moving  on  crutches,  and  tottering  at  every  step."  Finally,  Con 
gress  itself  officially  proclaimed  its  inability  to  conduct  the  gov 
ernment  under  its  meager  powers,  by  supporting  a  proposal 
for  a  convention  of  delegates  from  all  the  states  to  revise  the 
Articles  of  Confederation. 

The  proposal  had  arisen  out  of  an  economic  difficulty.  Mary 
land  and  Virginia  disputed  the  control  of  the  Potomac  River, 
and  commissioners  from  these  two  states  met  as  guests  of 
Washington  at  Mount  Vernon,  in  1785,  to  settle  the  matter.  In 
the  course  of  the  discussion  it  developed  that  the  commercial 


The  Constitution  167 

interests  of  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  were  also  concerned, 
and  the  Virginia  commissioners  suggested  that  all  the  states  be 
invited  to  send  delegates  to  a  convention  at  Annapolis,  Maryland, 
the  next  year,  to  consider  the  commercial  interests  of  the  United 
States  as  a  whole.  But  no  sooner  had  the  delegates  of  five 
states  met  at  Annapolis  in  1786  than  they  took  a  further  im 
portant  step.  The  New  Jersey  delegation  had  brought  instruc 
tions  to  discuss  the  commercial  question  and  other  important 
matters.  Alexander  Hamilton  of  New  York,  impressed  by  this 
phrase,  proposed  that  still  another  convention  of  all  the  states  be 
called  at  Philadelphia  the  next  year  for  the  general  revision  of 
the  Articles  of  Confederation.  Even  before  Congress  sanctioned 
this  proposal  six  of  the  states  had  appointed  delegates,  and 
after  the  approval  of  Congress  was  given  six  more  states  fell 
into  line.  Only  little  Rhode  Island,  fearing  that  her  commerce 
would  be  ruined  by  national  control  and  her  representation  over 
shadowed  by  the  larger  states  in  Congress,  refused  to  send 
delegates  to  the  convention. 

It  was  an  extraordinary  array  of  political  talent  that  was  210.  person- 
brought  together  in  the  convention  which  met  in  Independence  constitu- 


Hall  at  Philadelphia  in  May,  1787,  to  devise  a  worthy  govern- 

ment  for  the  United.  States.    John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jeffer-  Philadelphia, 

son  were  in  Europe,  as  ministers  to  the  courts  of  England  and       y>  ] 

France  respectively.    John  Jay  was  foreign  secretary  in  Con 

gress,  and  Patrick  Henry  and  Samuel  Adams,  the  foremost 

agitators  of  the  American  Revolution,  were  both  opposed  to 

strengthening  the  central  government.    But  with  these  five  ex 

ceptions  the  greatest  men  of  the  country  were  at  the  Philadel 

phia  convention  :  Washington,  Madison,  Randolph,  and  Mason 

from  Virginia  ;  Franklin,  Wilson,  Robert  and  Gouverneur  Morris 

from  Pennsylvania  ;  Roger  Sherman  and  Oliver  Ellsworth  from 

Connecticut  ;  Elbridge  Gerry  and  Rufus  King  from  Massachu 

setts  ;  John  Rutledge  and  Charles  Pinckney  from  South  Caro 

lina  ;  John  Dickinson  from  Delaware  ;  and  Alexander  Hamilton 

from  New  York.    Washington  was  chosen  president  of  the 


1 68  The  New  Republic 

convention.  The  sessions,  which  lasted  from  May  25  to  Septem 
ber  17,  were  secret;  but  the  methodical  Madison  took  full 
notes  of  the  debates,  writing  them  out  carefully  every  evening 
in  the  form  of  a  journal.  When  he  died  fifty  years  later,  —  the 
last  survivor  of  that  remarkable  gathering  of  men,  —  his  widow 
sold  the  manuscript  of  this  valuable  journal,  with  other  impor 
tant  Madison  papers,  to  Congress  for  $30,000,  and  the  journal 
was  published  at  Washington  in  1840. 

211.  The  The  convention  proceeded  to  give  a  very  liberal  interpreta- 
pian^for  a      tion  to  *ts  instructions  to  "  amend  "  the  Articles  of  Confedera- 

nationai  gov-  tjon     The  Virginia  delegation  brought  in  a  plan  for  the  entire 

ernment 

remodeling  of  the  government.  There  were  to  be  three  inde 
pendent  departments,  —  the  legislative,  the  executive,  and  the 
judicial.  The  legislature  was  to  consist  of  a  House  of  Represent 
atives-  elected  by  the  people  and  a  Senate  elected  by  the  House. 
The  government  therefore  was  to  be  national,  deriving  its  power 
directly  from  the  people  of  the  nation  at  large,  rather  than  a 
confederation,  depending  for  its  existence  on  the  will  of  the 
various  state  legislatures. 

212.  The  The  small  states,  fearing  that  they  would  lose  their  individu- 
Pian^fora^  a^ty  entirely  in  a  national  legislature  elected  in  proportion  to 
federation11"    the  PoPulation?  supported  a  counterplan  introduced  by  Gov 
ernor  Paterson  of  New  Jersey.   The  New  Jersey  plan  proposed 
to  amend  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  as  did  the  Virginia 
plan,  by  the  creation  of  executive  and  judicial  departments  and 
by  giving  Congress  control  of  commerce  and  power  to  raise 
taxes.   But  the  representatives  in  Congress  were  still  to  be  repre 
sentatives  of  the  states  and  not  of  the  people  of  the  nation,  and 
each  state,  large  or  small,  was  to  be  equal  in  representation  to 
all  the  others.    In  short,  the  existing  confederation  was  to  be 
perpetuated,  with  increased  powers  to  be  sure,  but  still  without 
the  strength  of  a  true  national  federation. 

213.  The  Then  there  were   extremists  on   both  sides.    To  some  the 
extremists  on    -.7-.     .    . 

both  sides        v  irgima  plan  appeared  too  conservative,  and  to  others  the  New 

Jersey  plan  seemed  too  radical.    The  latter,  interpreting  their 


The  Constitution  169 

instructions  to  "amend"  the  Articles  very  literally,  left  the 
convention  and  went  home  when  they  saw  that  it  was  the  in 
tention  of  the  delegations  to  change  the  nature  of  the  govern 
ment.  On  the  other  hand,  Alexander  Hamilton  advocated  a 
government  in  which  the  chief  executive  and  the  senators 
should  hold  office  for  life  (like  the  English  king  and  lords), 
and  in  which  the  former  should  have  power  not  only  of  veto 
ing  state  laws,  as  suggested  in  the  Virginia  plan,  but  also  of 
appointing  and  removing  the  governors  of  the  states,  thus 
reducing  the  states  to  mere  administrative  departments  of  the 
national  government,  like  the  shires  in  England  or  the  depart 
ments  in  France. 

The  extremists  found  little  following,  however,  in  the  conven-  214.  A  com- 
tion.     The  great  struggle  was  between  the  Virginia  and  the  reached  on 

New  Tersev  plans ;  that  is,  between  a  national  federation  and  a  the  form  °* 
J         J   r  government 

mere  confederacy  of  states.1  And  on  this  question  the  conven 
tion  threatened  to  go  to  pieces,  the  federalists  declaring  that 
they  would  never  consent  to  a  government  in  which  their  states 
should  be  swallowed  up,  and  the  nationalists  with  equal  fervor 
declaring  that  they  would  not  support  a  government  in  which 
the  will  of  a  large  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
could  be  thwarted  by  the  selfish  action  of  one  or  two  small 
states,  as  it  had  been  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation. 
Only  the  tact,  patience,  and  persuasion  of  a  few  veteran  states 
men  like  Benjamin  Franklin,  John  Dickinson,  and  Roger  Sher 
man,  and  the  incomparable  political  wisdom  and  diligence  in 
debate  of  James  Madison,  "  the  Father  of  the  Constitution," 
finally  succeeded  in  bringing  about  a  series  of  compromises  on 
the  most  important  questions  at  issue.  The  states,  large  and 
small,  were  to  preserve  their  equality  of  representation  in  the 

1  Unfortunately  we  have  no  single  terms  in  our  language  to  define  this  very 
important  difference  in  the  idea  of  government,  like  the  German  Bundesstaat 
(a  leagued  state)  and  Staatenbund  (a  league  of  states).  From  the  very  beginning 
of  our  government  till  to-day  the  question  of  the  relative  power  of  the  nation 
(the  Bund}  and  the  states  (the  Staaten)  has  been  warmly  debated  by  the  cham 
pions  of  the  two  systems. 


170  The  New  Republic 

upper  House  of  Congress  (the  Senate),  while  the  members  of 
the  lower  House  (the  House  of  Representatives)  were  to  be 
elected  by  the  people  of  the  states,  each  state  having  a  number 
of  representatives  in  proportion  to  its  population.  As  repre 
sentatives  of  the  people,  the  members  of  the  lower  House  were 
to  have  control  of  the  public  purse,  with  the  sole  right  to  raise 
a  revenue  or  levy  taxes. 

215.  Further       When  the  great  question  of  the  general  character  of  our 

compromises 

between  the     government  was  settled  by  this   first  compromise,  the  other 


P°^nts  °f  difference,  most  of  which  concerned  the  conflicting  inter- 
states  ests  of  the  North  and  the  South,  were  easily  adjusted.     The 

Southern  states  demanded  that  their  slaves  (though  they  were 
not  citizens)  should  be  counted  as  population  in  the  apportion 
ment  of  representatives  in  Congress,  that  Congress  should  not 
interfere  with  the  slave  trade,  and  that  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  should  be  necessary  for  passing 
tariff  laws.  Compromises  were  arrived  at  on  all  these  questions. 
A  slave  was  to  be  counted  as  three  fifths  of  a  person  in  making 
up  the  apportionment  for  Congress,  so  that  a  state  with  100,- 
ooo  white  inhabitants  and  50,000  slaves  would  be  reckoned  as 
having  a  population  of  130,000.  Congress  was  not  to  disturb 
the  slave  trade  for  twenty  years,  though  it  might  levy  a  tax  not 
exceeding  ten  dollars  a  head  on  slaves  imported  into  the  states. 
Finally,  tariff  laws  were  to  be  passed  by  a  simple  majority  vote 
in  the  House,  but  no  duties  were  to  be  levied  on  exports. 

216.  The  The  convention,  after  voting  that  the  new  Constitution  should 

ratification  of          . 

the  constitu-  go  into  effect  as  soon  as  nine  states  had  accepted  it,  sent  the 

document  to  Congress,  and  Congress  transmitted  it  to  the  sev 
eral  states  for  ratification.  Delaware  was  the  first  to  ratify  the 
new  Constitution,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  December  7,  1787. 
By  the  twenty-first  of  the  following  June  eight  other  states  had 
ratified  in  the  following  order:  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey, 
Georgia,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  Maryland,  South  Carolina, 
New  Hampshire  ;  and  the  Constitution  thereupon  became  the 
supreme  law  for  those  states.  Virginia  and  New  York  followed 


The  Constitution  171 

soon,  ratifying  by  very  narrow  margins  after  bitter  struggles 
in  their  conventions.  North  Carolina  did  not  come  under  "  the 
federal  roof"  until  November,  1789,  after  Washington  had 
been  President  for  over  six  months.  Rhode  Island  did  not 
even  send  any  delegates  to  the  Constitutional  Convention,  and 
did  not  call  any  convention  in  the  state  to  consider  ratifying 
the  Constitution,  until  the  new  Congress  threatened  to  treat  the 
state  as  a  foreign  nation  and  levy  tariff  duties  on  her  commerce 
with  the  other  states.  Then  she  came  to  terms  and  entered  the 
Union,  May  29,  1790. 

The  Ninth  PILL4R  erected  ! 

"The  Ratification  of  the  Conventions  of  nine  States,  fhall  befuffitient  forthe«UabJifii« 
ment  of  this  Conftitution,  between  the  States  lo  ratifying  the  fame."  Art.  w. 

INCIPIENT  M4GNI  PROCEDERE  MENSES. 

The  Attraction  muft 


The  Progress  of  Ratification 
From  an  Old  Chronicle 

Some  of  the  states  (Delaware,  New  Jersey,  Georgia)  rati-  217.  Hard 
fied  the  Constitution  unanimously,  but  in  others  (Massachu-  ratification 
setts,  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  New  York)  there  was  a  severe 
struggle.  A  change  of  10  votes  in  the  Massachusetts  conven 
tion  of  355  members,  or  of  6  votes  in  the  Virginia  conven 
tion  of  1 68,  or  of  2  votes  in  the  New  York  convention  of 
57  would  have  defeated  the  Constitution  in  these  states.  In 
Pennsylvania  it  seemed  as  though  the  days  of  the  Stamp 
Act  had  returned.  There  was  rioting  and  burning  in  effigy, 
and  a  war  of  brickbats  as  well  as  of  pamphlets.  The  narrow 
victory  in  New  York  was  won  only  through  the  tireless  advo 
cacy  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  loyally  supported  the  Consti 
tution,  although,  as  we  have  seen,  it  did  not  satisfy  him  in 


The  New  Republic 

Court  of  the  United  States,  and  gave  Congress  power  to  estab 
lish  inferior  national  (or  federal)  courts  throughout  the  Union. 

220.  The  The  creation  of  these  three  independent  departments  of  leg- 
ments  ofPgov-  islative,  executive,  and  judicial  power,  reaching  every  citizen  in 
emment          every  part  of  the  land,  was  the  fundamental  achievement  of 

the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  The  idea  of  the  threefold 
division  of  power  was  not  a  new  one,  for  the  governments  of 
the  colonies  had  all  consisted  of  lawmaking  assemblies  elected 
by  the  people,  an  executive  appointed  (except  in  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island)  by  king  or  proprietary,  and  courts  of  jus 
tice  from  which  there  was  final  appeal  to  the  Privy  Council  of 
the  king.  But  the  task  of  adopting  this  triple  plan  of  govern 
ment  on  a  national  scale,  while  still  preserving  the  individuality 
and  even  to  a  large  extent  the  independence  of  the  states,  was 
a  very  difficult  and  delicate  one. 

221.  The  The  legislative  department  of  our  government  is  described  in 
department      Article  I  of  the  Constitution,  where  the  qualifications,  length  of 
(Congress)       term,  method  of  election,  duties  and  powers  of  the  members  of 

both  Houses  of  Congress,  are  prescribed.  The  number  of  sena 
tors  in  every  Congress  is  just  twice  the  number  of  states  in  the 
Union,  but  the  size  of  the  House  of  Representatives  is  altered 
every  ten  years  when  a  new  census  of  the  United  States  is 
taken.  Congress  then  makes  a  new  ratio  of  representation  and 
a  new  apportionment  of  congressional  districts  for  each  state, 
according  to  its  population.  The  present  House  (1911)  con 
tains  391  members,  one  for  about  every  220,000  of  population. 
If  the  original  ratio  of  i  to  30,000  had  been  kept,  the  House 
would  now  contain  about  2800  members.  So  rapid  has  been 
the  growth  of  the  Western  country  that  from  some  of  the 
original  seaboard  states  the  number  of  representatives  to  Con 
gress  has  actually  decreased  since  the  beginning  of  the  nine 
teenth  century.  By  the  apportionment  of  the  census  of  1800 
Connecticut  was  entitled  to  7  congressmen,1  Massachusetts  to 

1  Although  Congress  consists  of  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  the  term  «  congressman  "  is  always  used  for  a  member  of  the  House,  and 
w  senator  "  for  a  member  of  the  Senate. 


The  Constitution  17$ 

17,  North  Carolina  to  12,  Virginia  to  22  ;  by  the  apportion 
ment  of  the  census  of  1900  these  states  were  given  a  represen 
tation  respectively  of  5,  14,  10,  and  10.  On  the  other  hand, 
New  York,  with  the  magnificent  development  of  its  highway  of 
commerce  from  Lake  Erie  to  Manhattan,  jumped  from  a  repre 
sentation  of  17  in  1800  to  37  in  1900;  and  Pennsylvania,  with 
its  rich  coal  and  iron  industries,  enjoyed  a  growth  in  population 
entitling  it  to  32  congressmen  in  1900  as  against  18  in  1800. 

In  order  to  become  laws  of  the  United  States  all  bills  intro-  222.  The 
duced  into  Congress  have  to  pass  both  Houses  and  receive  the  congress 
President's  signature.  If  the  President  vetoes  a  bill,  it  still  be 
comes  a  law  if,  on  reconsideration,  both  Houses  pass  it  by  a  two- 
thirds  majority.  If  Congress  passes  a  law  which  is  not  within 
its  authority  as  granted  by  the  Constitution  (Art.  I,  Sect.  8), 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  when  appealed  to  in 
any  case  to  test  that  law,  has  the  right  and  duty  to  declare  the 
law  void.  The  subjects  on  which  Congress  may  legislate  natu 
rally  include  all  those  which  concern  the  dignity  and  credit  of  the 
nation  in  the  eyes  of  foreign  powers,  and  its  peace  and  security 
at  home,  namely :  the  regulation  of  commerce  with  foreign 
nations  and  between  the  states ;  the  declaration  of  war  and  the 
direction  of  the  military  and  naval  forces  of  the  country ;  the 
regulation  of  the  currency  and  coinage  ;  the  control  of  territories 
and  public  lands  ;  the  care  of  the  Indians,  of  rivers  and  harbors, 
lighthouses,  coast  survey,  and  all  that  pertains  to  shipping  and 
defense.  Moreover,  the  states  are  forbidden  to  exercise  certain 
powers  of  sovereignty  delegated  to  the  national  Congress.  No 
state  can  make  alliances,  go  to  war,  coin  money,  lay  taxes  on 
the  commerce  of  another  state,  or  make  anything  but  gold  and 
silver  legal  tender  (lawful  money)  for  the  payment  of  debts. 

However,  after  deducting  the  powers  delegated  to  Congress  223.  The 
or  expressly  denied  to  the  states,  the  latter  have  an  immense  field  thTstates*  * 
for  legislation.    All  those  things  which  especially  interest  the 
average  citizen  are  affairs  of  the  state  government,  namely :  the 
protection  of  life  and  property ;  laws  of  marriage  and  inheritance ; 


The  New  Republic 


the  chartering  and  control  of  business  corporations,  banks,  in 
surance  and  trust  companies ;  the  definition  and  punishment  of 
crimes ;  the  establishment  of  systems  of  public  education ;  the 
creation  of  city,  county,  and  town  governments ;  and  a  host  of 
other  powers,  political,  moral,  and  social.  Sometimes  the  field  of 
jurisdiction  between  the  national  and  the  state  power  is  hard 


224.  The 
executive  de 
partment 
(the  Presi 
dent  and  his 
assistants) 


The  Capitol  at  Washington 
Meeting  place  of  the  Senate,  the  House,  and  the  Supreme  Court 

to  distinguish,  but  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  is  final 
in  determining  both  the  limits  of  the  federal  authority  and  the 
interpretation  of  the  Constitution. 

The  duty  of  putting  into  effect  the  laws  of  Congress  is  in 
trusted  to  the  executive  department  of  our  government.  Theo 
retically,  the  whole  of  this  immense  task  falls  on  the  President 
alone,  who  "  shall  take  care  that  the  laws  be  faithfully  executed." 
Actually  no  man  could  do  a  hundredth  part  of  the  work  of 
executing  the  thousands  of  laws  which  Congress  passes  every 
session.  To  collect  the  duties  and  excises  which  Congress  lays ; 
to  coin  the  money  which  it  authorizes  ;  to  print  and  sell  the  bonds 


The  Constitution  177 

it  issues ;  to  command  the  armies  it  raises  ;  to  build  and  man  the 
warships  it  votes;  to  appoint  judges  for  the  courts  it  erects; 
to  handle  the  business  of  the  post  office  ;  to  carry  into  effect  its 
agreements,  political  and  economic,  with  the  nations  of  the 
world ;  to  govern  its  territories  and  dependencies  in  America, 
the  West  Indies,  and  the  Pacific  —  all  this  calls  for  the  labors  of 
tens  of  thousands  of  secretaries,  undersecretaries,  and  clerks  in 
the  various  executive  departments  at  Washington,  and  a  host  of 
federal  officials  in  our  seaports,  our  dockyards,  our  forts  and 
arsenals,  our  islands  and  territories,  and  the  capitals  and  chief 
commercial  centers  of  foreign  countries. 

Nine  great  executive  departments  have  been  created  by  Con-  225.  The 
gress  to  perform  these  varied  duties.  The  departments  of  State 
(Foreign  Affairs),  Treasury,  War,  and  the  Post  Office  are  as  old 
as  our  government  itself.  The  following  departments  have  been 
added  as  the  business  of  government  required  :  the  Department 
of  the  Navy  in  1798  ;  of  the  Interior  in  1849  ;  of  Justice  (the 
Attorney-General's  department1)  in  1870;  of  Agriculture  in 
1889  ;  of  Commerce  and  Labor  in  1903.  Every  President  on 
coming  into  office  chooses  the  heads  of  these  departments,  and 
these  nine  secretaries  form  the  President's  "  official  family  "  or 
cabinet.  They  are  lieutenants  of  the  President  only,  responsible 
to  him  alone,  and  removable  by  him  at  his  pleasure.  He  con 
sults  them  in  regular  cabinet  meetings  as  to  the  affairs  of  their 
departments,  and,  acting  on  their  knowledge  and  advice,  he 
communicates  with  Congress  by  an  elaborate  annual  message 
when  the  Houses  assemble  on  the  first  Monday  of  each  Decem 
ber,  and  by  as  many  special  messages  during  the  session  as  he 
sees  fit  to  send.  Congress  does  not  recognize  the  cabinet,  but 
only  the  President.  Laws  on  every  subject  go  to  him,  not 
to  the  heads  of  departments,  for  signature.  Appointments  to 

1  The  Attorney-General,  or  legal  adviser  of  the  President  and  prosecutor  of 
suits  brought  by  the  United  States,  was  a  member  of  the  President's  cabinet  from 
the  inauguration  of  the  government.  On  the  other  hand,  though  the  Post-Office 
Department  was  organized  in  the  colonial  days,  its  head  (the  Postmaster-General) 
was  not  made  a  member  of  the  cabinet  until  1829. 


178  The  New  Republic 

executive  and  judicial  offices,  needing  the  consent  of  the  Senate, 
are  sent  to  that  body  not  by  the  secretaries  but  by  the  President. 
He  is  the  only  executive  officer  recognized  by  the  Constitution. 

226.  The  It  was  the  intention  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  to  have 
President    *  the  President,  the  most  important  servant  of  the  government  of 

the  United  States,  chosen  by  a  selected  body  of  judicious  men 
called  "  electors."  Every  state  should  choose,  in  the  manner  pre 
scribed  by  its  legislature,  a  number  of  men  equal  to  that  state's 
representation  in  Congress.  The  men  so  chosen  were  to  as 
semble  and  vote  for  President  and  Vice  President.1  Thus  our 
chief  executive  was  to  be  actually  selected  and  elected  by  a 
small,  carefully  chosen  body  of  men  in  each  state.  But  the 
statesmen  who  planned  this  calm,  judicious  method  of  selecting 
a  President  did  not  foresee  the  intense  party  feeling  that  was  to 
develop  in  the  United  States  even  before  George  Washington 
was  out  of  the  presidential  chair.  The  party  leaders  began  at 
once  to  select  the  candidates  for  President  and  Vice  President, 
and  have  done  so  ever  since.2 

227.  The  The  voters  in  each  state  still  continue  to  cast  their  votes  for 
thTeiectorai  presidential  electors,  but  the  electors  no  longer  choose  the  Presi 
dent.   They  simply  register  the  vote  of  their  state.    Each  party 
ticket  in  each  state  has  a  list  of  electors  (equal  in  number  to  the 
presidential  votes  to  which  the  state  is  entitled).    It  is  under 
stood  that  each  of  the  electors  on  the  victorious  ticket  will  cast 
his  vote  for  the  candidate  of  his  party,  who  has  been  regularly 
nominated  by  the  national  convention  some  months  before.    In 

1  At  first  the  electors  did  not  vote  for  President  and  Vice  President  separately, 
but  simply  marked  two  names  on  their  ballots.   The  man  who  received  the 
highest  number  of  votes  (if  a  majority  of  the  whole  number)  became  President, 
and  the  man  with  the  next  highest  number  Vice  President.   Since  this  method 
of  choice  resulted  in  an  embarrassing  tie  in  the  election  of  1800,  the  Constitu 
tion  was  amended  (Amendment  XII)  in  1804,  so  as  to  have  each  elector  vote 
specifically  for  President  and  Vice  President. 

2  In  the  early  years  of  the  republic  the  candidates  were  selected  by  party 
caucuses  in  Congress  or  by  the  indorsement  of  the  various  state  legislatures. 
About  1830  the  national  party  "machines"  were  organized,  and  from  that  time 
great  national  conventions,  engineered  by  these  party  machines,  have  met  several 
months  before  each  presidential  election  to  nominate  the  candidates. 


The  Constitution  179 

ther  words,  each  state,  in  choosing  Republican  or  Democratic 
lectors,  simply  instructs  those  electors  to  vote  for  the  Republican 
r  Democratic  candidate  for  the  presidency.  As  soon,  therefore, 
s  the  electors  are  voted  for,  in  November,  it  is  known  which 
andidate  has  been  elected  President,  without  waiting  for  those 
lectors  to  meet  and  cast  their  ballots  the  following  January. 

The  judicial  department  of  our  government  is  the  hardest  to  228.  The 
nderstand,  because  of  the  variety  of  courts  and  the  double  payment6" 
irisdiction  of  national  and  state  tribunals.    Every  citizen  of  the  (the  courts) 
Inited  States  lives  under  two  systems  of  law,  national  and  state, 
or  violation  of  national  laws  (the  laws  of  Congress)  he  is  tried 
i  the  federal  (or  national)  courts ;  for  violation  of  state  laws  he 
\  tried  in  the  state  courts. 

The  highest  court  in  our  judicial  system  is  the  United  States  229.  The 
upreme  Court,  sitting  at  Washington,  composed  of  a  chief  supreme^ 
istice  and  eight  associate  justices,  all  appointed  for  life  by  the  Court 
'resident,  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate.  This  most  dignified 
ody  in  our  government  is  invested  with  enormous  power.  Its 
ecision  is  final  in  all  cases  brought  to  it  by  appeal  from  state 
r  federal  courts  throughout  the  land.1  It  is  the  official  inter- 
reter  and  guardian  of  the  Constitution.  It  has  sole  jurisdic- 
on  in  cases  affecting  foreign  ambassadors  or  ministers,  and 
i  cases  between  two  states  or  between  a  state  and  the  United 
itates.  But  any  case  between  corporations  or  individuals  in- 
olving  the  interpretation  of  a  clause  of  the  Constitution  may  be 
ppealed  from  the  lower  courts  to  its  jurisdiction,  and  in  the  deci- 
ion  of  such  a  case  it  has  the  right  to  nullify  or  declare  void  any 
iw  of  Congress  or  of  a  state  that  it  finds  violating  the  Consti- 
ation.  Radical  reformers,  especially  in  the  last  generation,  in- 
ignant  that  a  mere  handful  of  men  appointed  by  the  President, 
nd  holding  office  for  life,  should  have  power  so  to  control  the 

1  Congress  has  established  federal  courts  in  every  state  of  the  Union ;  and  all 
ic  federal  judges  (now  nearly  100  in  number)  are  appointed  for  life  by  the  Presi- 
ent,  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate.  The  judges  of  the  state  courts  are  either 
ppointed  by  the  governor  (in  a  few  of  the  older  states)  or  elected  by  the  people 
r  the  legislature  for  a  term  varying  from  2  to  21  years. 


178  The  New  Republic 

executive  and  judicial  offices,  needing  the  consent  of  the  Senate, 
are  sent  to  that  body  not  by  the  secretaries  but  by  the  President. 
He  is  the  only  executive  officer  recognized  by  the  Constitution. 

226.  The  It  was  the  intention  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  to  have 
President^  tne  President,  the  most  important  servant  of  the  government  of 

the  United  States,  chosen  by  a  selected  body  of  judicious  men 
called  "  electors."  Every  state  should  choose,  in  the  manner  pre 
scribed  by  its  legislature,  a  number  of  men  equal  to  that  state's 
representation  in  Congress.  The  men  so  chosen  were  to  as 
semble  and  vote  for  President  and  Vice  President.1  Thus  our 
chief  executive  was  to  be  actually  selected  and  elected  by  a 
small,  carefully  chosen  body  of  men  in  each  state.  But  the 
statesmen  who  planned  this  calm,  judicious  method  of  selecting 
a  President  did  not  foresee  the  intense  party  feeling  that  was  to 
develop  in  the  United  States  even  before  George  Washington 
was  out  of  the  presidential  chair.  The  party  leaders  began  at 
once  to  select  the  candidates  for  President  and  Vice  President, 
and  have  done  so  ever  since.2 

227.  The  The  voters  in  each  state  still  continue  to  cast  their  votes  for 
the  electoral  presidential  electors,  but  the  electors  no  longer  choose  the  Presi 
dent.   They  simply  register  the  vote  of  their  state.    Each  party 
ticket  in  each  state  has  a  list  of  electors  (equal  in  number  to  the 
presidential  votes  to  which  the  state  is  entitled).    It  is  under 
stood  that  each  of  the  electors  on  the  victorious  ticket  will  cast 
his  vote  for  the  candidate  of  his  party,  who  has  been  regularly 
nominated  by  the  national  convention  some  months  before.    In 

1  At  first  the  electors  did  not  vote  for  President  and  Vice  President  separately, 
but  simply  marked  two  names  on  their  ballots.   The  man  who  received  the 
highest  number  of  votes  (if  a  majority  of  the  whole  number)  became  President, 
and  the  man  with  the  next  highest  number  Vice  President.   Since  this  method 
of  choice  resulted  in  an  embarrassing  tie  in  the  election  of  1800,  the  Constitu 
tion  was  amended  (Amendment  XII)  in  1804,  so  as  to  have  each  elector  vote 
specifically  for  President  and  Vice  President. 

2  In  the  early  years  of  the  republic  the  candidates  were  selected  by  party 
caucuses  in  Congress  or  by  the  indorsement  of  the  various  state  legislatures. 
About  1830  the  national  party  "machines"  were  organized,  and  from  that  time 
great  national  conventions,  engineered  by  these  party  machines,  have  met  several 
months  before  each  presidential  election  to  nominate  the  candidates. 


The  Constitution  179 

other  words,  each  state,  in  choosing  Republican  or  Democratic 
electors,  simply  instructs  those  electors  to  vote  for  the  Republican 
or  Democratic  candidate  for  the  presidency.  As  soon,  therefore, 
as  the  electors  are  voted  for,  in  November,  it  is  known  which 
candidate  has  been  elected  President,  without  waiting  for  those 
electors  to  meet  and  cast  their  ballots  the  following  January. 

The  judicial  department  of  our  government  is  the  hardest  to  228.  The 
understand,  because  of  the  variety  of  courts  and  the  double  pitmen?6" 
urisdiction  of  national  and  state  tribunals.    Every  citizen  of  the  (the  courts) 
United  States  lives  under  two  systems  of  law,  national  and  state. 
For  violation  of  national  laws  (the  laws  of  Congress)  he  is  tried 
n  the  federal  (or  national)  courts ;  for  violation  of  state  laws  he 
s  tried  in  the  state  courts. 

The  highest  court  in  our  judicial  system  is  the  United  States  229.  The 
Supreme  Court,  sitting  at  Washington,  composed  of  a  chief 
ustice  and  eight  associate  justices,  all  appointed  for  life  by  the  Coilrt 
^resident,  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate.  This  most  dignified 
ody  in  our  government  is  invested  with  enormous  power.  Its 
lecision  is  final  in  all  cases  brought  to  it  by  appeal  from  state 
r  federal  courts  throughout  the  land.1  It  is  the  official  inter- 
reter  and  guardian  of  the  Constitution.  It  has  sole  jurisdic- 
lon  in  cases  affecting  foreign  ambassadors  or  ministers,  and 
i  cases  between  two  states  or  between  a  state  and  the  United 
tates.  But  any  case  between  corporations  or  individuals  in- 
giving  the  interpretation  of  a  clause  of  the  Constitution  may  be 
ppealed  from  the  lower  courts  to  its  jurisdiction,  and  in  the  deci- 
ion  of  such  a  case  it  has  the  right  to  nullify  or  declare  void  any 
iw  of  Congress  or  of  a  state  that  it  finds  violating  the  Consti- 
ution.  Radical  reformers,  especially  in  the  last  generation,  in- 
ignant  that  a  mere  handful  of  men  appointed  by  the  President, 
nd  holding  office  for  life,  should  have  power  so  to  control  the 

1  Congress  has  established  federal  courts  in  every  state  of  the  Union  ;  and  all 
ic  federal  judges  (now  nearly  100  in  number)  are  appointed  for  life  by  the  Presi- 
ent,  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate.  The  judges  of  the  state  courts  are  either 
>pointed  by  the  governor  (in  a  few  of  the  older  states)  or  elected  by  the  people 
r  the  legislature  for  a  term  varying  from  2  to  21  years. 


180  The  New  Republic 

legislation  of  the  forty-odd  states  of  the  Union,  have  attacked 
the  Supreme  Court  and  even  demanded  its  abolition.  But  the 
vast  majority  of  Americans  look  upon  the  highest  tribunal  of 
the  nation  with  pride  for  the  moderation  of  its  decisions  and 
with  respect  for  the  integrity  and  ability  of  its  members. 
230.  The  There  are  many  important  features  in  the  actual  conduct  of 

iaws^oTthe  tne  government  of  the  United  States  which  are  not  mentioned 
Constitution  -n-  t^e  constitution  at  all.  The  President's  cabinet,  the  national 
nominating  conventions,  and  the  instruction  of  electors  to  vote 
for  the  party's  nominee  for  President,  are  examples  that  we  have 
already  noticed.  Other  customs  which  amount  almost  to  "  un 
written  laws  "  of  the  Constitution  are  (i)  the  limitation  of  the 
President's  office  to  two  terms,  an  example  set  by  Washingtor 
and  never  yet  departed  from  ;  (2)  "  senatorial  courtesy,"  which 
expects  the  President  to  follow  the  recommendation  of  the  Unitec 
States  senators  of  his  party  in  making  federal  appointment* 
(judges,  marshals,  collectors  of  customs,  postmasters)  in  their  re 
spective  states  ;  (3)  the  great  power  of  the  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  who,  by  his  selection  of  members  of  the  com 
mittees  and  by  "  recognizing"  on  the  floor  of  the  House  only  suet 
debaters  as  he  chooses  to,  can  do  more  to  influence  the  legislatior 
of  Congress  than  any  other  man  in  the  country;  (4)  the  transactor 
of  practically  all  the  business  of  Congress  in  committee  rooms 
As  a  consequence  of  the  last  two  points  mentioned,  Congress 
has  largely  ceased  to  be  a  hall  of  debate  in  which  national  issues 
are  threshed  out  by  the  greatest  orators  of  the  nation,  and  has 
become  scarcely  more  than  a  great  voting  machine,  run  by  the 
party  in  power.  Only  occasionally  is  its  influence  felt  in  shaping 
the  political  or  moral  thought  of  the  nation,  through  some  sei 
speech  which  has  been  voted  "  permission  to  print."  Few  Ameri 
cans  follow  the  daily  business  of  Congress  as  Englishmen  follow 
the  debates  of  Parliament. 

Bill  oni?  hts       Several  of  tne  states,  notably  Massachusetts,  accepted  the 
(Amendments  Constitution  only  on  condition  that  amendments  be  added  guar 
anteeing  certain  immemorial  rights,  such  as  liberty  of  speech 


The  Constitution  181 

and  press,  immunity  from  arbitrary  arrest  and  cruel  punish 
ments,  freedom  of  peaceable  assembly,  and  the  right  to  be  tried 
by  a  jury  of  one's  peers  after  a  public  hearing  of  witnesses  on 
both  sides.  Ten  amendments,  constituting  a  Bill  of  Rights,  were 
accordingly  adopted  by  Congress  and  ratified  by  the  states  soon 
after  the  inauguration  of  the  new  government  (November,  1791). 
The  demand  for  these  amendments  shows  that  the  states  still 
regarded  the  central  government  with  something  of  that  jealous 
and  cautious  distrust  with  which  they  had  viewed  the  officers  of 
the  British  crown. 

Only  five  amendments  have  been  added  to  the  Constitution  232.  Amend- 
since  the  passage  of  the  Bill  of  Rights.  Of  these,  two  were  only  conStutfon 
slight  revisions  of  clauses  in  the  original  articles,  and  the  last 
three  were  occasioned  by  slavery  and  the  Civil  War.  If  the 
process  of  amending  the  Constitution  were  less  complicated 
(see  Art.  V),  we  should  probably  have  had  many  more  than 
fifteen  amendments,  for  proposals  are  constantly  being  agitated 
for  the  alteration  of  the  Constitution l ;  for  example,  that  the 
United  States  senators  shall  be  elected  by  the  vote  of  the 
people  (see  Art.  I,  sect.  3,  clause  i);  that  Congress  be  given 
power  to  regulate  certain  business  corporations  ;  that  the  people 
be  allowed  .  to  "  initiate  "  legislation,  or  instruct  Congress  to 
introduce  certain  bills. 

In  the  absence  of  specific  amendments  Congress  is  able  to  233.  The 
extend  its  authority  pretty  widely  by  stretching  the  so-called  clause  "\)f  the 
"  elastic  clause  "  of  the  Constitution,  which,  after  the  enumera-  Constitution 
tion  of  the  powers  of  Congress,  adds,  "And  to  make  all  laws 
which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution 
the  foregoing  powers"  (Art.  I,  sect.  8,  clause  18).    From  the 
very  earliest  days  of  our  government  there  have  been  parties 
with  opposite  views  on  the  interpretation  of  this  clause  of  the 
Constitution.    The  "  strict  constructionists  "  have  held  that  the 

1  A  proposed  Sixteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  giving  Congress 
the  right  to  tax  incomes,  is  now  (1911)  before  the  state  legislatures  for  rati 
fication. 


1 82  The  New  Republic 

letter  of  the  Constitution  must  be  observed,  and  that  Congress 
and  the  President  must  exercise  only  the  powers  explicitly 
granted  to  them  in  Articles  I  and  II.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
"  loose  constructionists,"  professing  themselves  equally  devoted 
to  the  Constitution,  have  contended  that  the  true  interpretation 
of  its  spirit  involves  the  assumption  by  the  President  and  Con 
gress  of  powers  not  explicitly  granted,  but  evidently  intended 
and  implied. 

234.  The  The  recent  industrial  and  commercial  development  of  our 

extent  of  the  •          r    i  r    i 

federal  power  country  has  made  the  question  of  the  extent  and  power  of  the 

federal  government  a  very  vital  one.  For  example,  when  the 
Constitution  gives  Congress  the  right  to  "  regulate  commerce 
among  the  several  states  "  (Art.  I,  sect.  8,  clause  3),  does  that 
power  necessarily  carry  with  it  the  regulation  of  the  rates  which 
railroads  shall  charge  to  carry  goods  from  state  to  state,  the  reg 
ulation  of  the  corporations  which  do  a  large  business  in  and  be 
tween  many  states,  and  even  the  regulation  of  the  factories 
whose  products  go  into  all  the  states  of  the  Union  ?  Our  rapid 
economic  development  has  carried  our  great  industries  beyond 
the  limits  and  control  of  the  states.  Can  we  respect  the  power 
of  the  states  and  still  maintain  the  efficiency  of  our  national 
government?  That  is  the  great  question  which  to-day  divides 
the  advocates  of  federal  extension  and  the  critics  of  "  federal 
usurpation." 

REFERENCES 

The  Critical  Period :  JOHN  FISKE,  The  Critical  Period  of  American 
History,  chaps,  ii-v ;  Old  South  Leaflets,  Nos.  2  (The  Articles  of  Con 
federation),  13,  127  (The  Northwest  Ordinance);  A.  C.  MCLAUGHLIN, 
The  Confederation  and  the  Constitution  (American  Nation  Series), 
chaps,  iv-xi;  JUSTIN  WINSOR,  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  Amer 
ica,  Vol.  VII,  chap,  iii ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Contem 
poraries,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  37-41,  46,  47,  52;  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT,  The 
Winning  of  the  West,  Vol.  III. 

A  More  Perfect  Union :  FISKE,  chaps,  v-viii ;  MCLAUGHLIN,  chaps, 
xii-xviii;  WINSOR,  Vol.  VII,  chap,  iv;  Cambridge  Modern  History,  Vol. 
VII,  chap,  viii ;  C.  A.  BEARD,  Readings  in  American  Government  and 


The  Constitution  183 

Politics,  Nos.  14-21  ;  Old  South  Leaflets,  Nos.  70,  99,  186,  197  ;  The 
Federalist,  ed.  PAUL  LEICESTER  FORD,  Introduction,  pp.  vii-xxix,  Nos. 
2,  10,  15,  27,  85;  HART,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  60-75. 

The  Federal  Power  :  B.  MOSES,  The  Government  of  the  United  States, 
chaps,  iv-vii  ;  JAMES  BRYCE,  The  American  Commonwealth  (abridged 
edition),  chaps,  iii-xxvi;  R.  L.  ASHLEY,  The  American  Government, 
pp.  204-355  >  S.  E.  FORMAN,  Advanced  Civics,  pp.  115-161  ;  The  Feder 
alist,  Nos.  41-44,  52-82;  BEARD,  Nos.  55-158. 

TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 


1.  The  Northwest  Ordinance  :  WILLIAM  ^A^^Go^K^Q,  Select  Documents 
of  American  History,  1775-1861,  No.  4  (for  text)  ;  FISKE,  pp.  187-207  ; 
ROOSEVELT,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  231-276;  Old  South  Leaflets,  Nos.  13,  42; 
HART,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  36,  42,  46;  MCLAUGHLIN,  pp.  108-122;  B.  A. 
HINSDALE,  The  Old  Northwest,  chap,  xv  ;  W.  F.  POOLE,  in  The  North 
American  Review,  Vol.  CXXII,  pp.  229-265. 

2.  The  Opposition  to  the  Constitution  :  [in  New  York]  The  Federalist, 
Introduction,  pp.  xix-xxix  ;  [in  Massachusetts]  S.  B.  HARDING,  Contest 
over  Ratification  in  Massachusetts  (Harvard  Historical  Studies,  1896); 
[in  general]  HART,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  70,  71,  73-75;  MCLAUGHLIN,  pp. 
277~3T7;  FISKE,  pp.  306-345;  WINSOR,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  246-251. 

3.  The  Powers  of  the  Speaker  of  the  House  :   BEARD,  Nos.  101-105  ; 
BRYCE,  pp.  104-107  ;  ANNA  DAWES,  How  we  are  Governed,  pp.  120-145  ; 
MARY  FOLLETT,  The  Speaker  of  the  House;  A.  B.  HART,  Practical  Essays 
in  American  Government,  No.  i  ;  FRANKLIN  PIERCE,  Federal  Usurpation, 
pp.  162-169. 

4.  Our  Foreign  Relations  under  the  Confederation  :  MCLAUGHLIN,  pp. 
89-107  ;  also  Western  Posts  and  British  Debts  (American  Historical  Asso 
ciation  Report,  1894),  pp.  413-444  ;  J.  B.  MACMASTER,  History  of  the 
People  of  the  United  'States,  Vol.1,  chaps,  iii-iv;  F.  A.  OGG,  The  Opening 
of  the  Mississippi,  pp.  400-460;  FISKE,  pp.  131-144,  154-162. 


CHAPTER  VII 


235.  The 
United  States 
in  1789 


236.  Indus 
tries,  travel, 
and  inter 
course 


FEDERALISTS  AND  REPUBLICANS 

LAUNCHING  THE  GOVERNMENT 

The  United  States  which  Washington  was  called  upon  to 
preside  over  in  1789,  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  presidential 
electors,  was  a  far  different  country  from  the  United  States  of 
to-day.  A  free  white  population  of  3,200,000,  with  700,000 
slaves, — considerably  less  altogether  than  the  present  population 
of  New  York  City,  —  was  scattered  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
from  the  rockbound  coast  of  New  England  to  the  rice  lands  of 
Georgia.  Philadelphia,  the  gay  capital  of  the  Confederation, 
had  a  population  of  42,000.  New  York  had  about  32,000; 
and  Boston,  Charleston,  Baltimore,  and  Salem  were  the  only 
other  cities  whose  census  reached  the  10,000  mark.  Virginia, 
the  oldest  and  largest  of  the  commonwealths  of  the  Union,  had 
not  a  single  city  worthy  of  the  name.  A  small  but  steady  immi 
gration,  chiefly  of  Scotch-Irish  stock  from  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina,  had  followed  Daniel  Boone  and  John  Sevier  across 
the  Alleghenies  to  found  the  states  of  Kentucky  and  Tennes 
see.  The  census  of  1790  estimated  that  109,000  of  these  hardy 
frontiersmen  were  scattered  through  the  rich  valleys  of  the  Ohio 
and  the  Cumberland  rivers. 

What  is  now  a  land  of  factories  and  cities  was  then  a  land  of 
forests  and  farms.  Over  90  per  cent  of  the  inhabitants  were 
tillers  of  the  soil.  Shipping  and  fishing  were  the  only  industries 
of  importance.  Of  manufactures  there  was  scarcely  a  trace. 
Travel  was  infrequent,  roads  were  scarce  and  poor,  and  the 
inns  had  to  make  up  in  hospitality  what  they  lacked  in  comforts 
and  conveniences.  The  lumbering,  springless  stagecoach,  with  its 

184 


Federalists  and  Republicans 


185 


stifling  leathern  curtains  for  protection  against  wind  and  rain, 
was  the  only  means  of  transportation  for  those  whose  business 
prevented  them  from  traveling  by  water,  or  whose  health  or  cir 
cumstances  made  impossible  the  journey  by  horseback.  In  any 
case,  the  means  of  transportation  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  showed  no  essential  improvement  in  comfort  or  speed 
over  those  of  two  thousand  years  earlier,  —  the  horse,  the  sail 
boat,  and  the  stage.  The  journey  of  a  Roman  official  from 
Asia  Minor  to  Italy  in  fourteen  days,  over  the  splendid  roads 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  could  not  have  been  duplicated  anywhere 
in  America,  or  even  in  Europe,  in  the  year  1800. 


•    ^        _  ..  _ 

Express  Service  in  Washington's  Day 

The  immediate  economic  needs  of  the  country,  such  as  the  237.  ECO- 
clearing  and  settling  of  new  lands,  the  provision  for  a  reliable  ™™C 
and  uniform  currency,  the  nurture  of  manufactures  and  com 
merce,  were  so  pressing  that  the  American  in   1789  devoted 
even  a  smaller  fraction  of  his  time  than  he  does  to-day  to 
the  cultivation  of  intellectual  and  artistic  interests. 

Society  in  the  American  cities  jealously  guarded  the  distinc-  238.  social 
tions  of  high  birth  and  good  breeding.  Powdered  wigs,  silver 
buckles,  liveried  footmen,  stately  courtesy  of  speech  and  man 
ners  were  the  marks  of  the  social  aristocracy.  But  for  all  its 
brave  show  it  was  a  harmless  aristocracy.  The  wide  gulf  which 
to-day  separates  fabulous  wealth  from  sordid  poverty  did 


conditions 


1 86  The  New  Republic 

not  exist  in  the  United  States  of  1789.  Our  visitors  from 
Europe,  especially  the  Frenchmen,  were  impressed  with  the 
general  diffusion  of  moderate  prosperity  in  America,  and  were 
filled  with  prophetic  hopes  that  this  land  would  be  forever  a 
model  of  democracy  to  the  "  caste-ridden  "  countries  of  Europe. 

239.  The  The  first  Wednesday  in  March  (March  4),  1789,  had  been 
of thfg?vern-  appointed  by  the  old  Congress  of  the  Confederation  as  the  day 
ment              for  fae  assembling  of  the  new  Congress  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  third  of  March  the  guns  of  New  York  fired  a  parting 
salute  to  the  old  government,  and  on  the  next  morning  a  wel 
coming  salute  to  the  new.  But  both  salutes  stirred  only  empty 
echoes ;  for  the  old  Congress  had  ceased  to  meet  some  months 
before,  and  the  new  Congress  was  not  ready  to  organize  for 
nearly  a  month  to  come.  Poor  roads,  uncertain  conveyances, 
and  the  lateness  of  the  elections  had  prevented  more  than  half 
of  the  twenty-two  senators1  and  three  fourths  of  the  fifty-nine 
congressmen  from  reaching  New  York  City,  the  temporary  capi 
tal,  on  the  appointed  day.  It  took  the  entire  month  of  April 
for  the  Houses  to  organize,  to  count  the  electoral  vote,  notify 
Washington  formally  of  his  election,  and  witness  the  ceremony 
of  his  inauguration  as  first  President  of  the  United  States 
(April  30). 

240.  The  Washington's  journey  from  his  fine  estate  of  Mount  Vernon, 
new  President  J        .        . 

on  the  Potomac,  to  the  city  of  New  York  was  one  long  ovation. 

The  streets  were  strewn  with  flowers.  Triumphal  arches,  din 
ners,  speeches,  cheers,  and  songs  gave  him  the  grateful  assurance 
that  his  inestimable  services  in  war  and  peace  were  appreciated 
by  his  countrymen.  His  characteristic  response  showed  no  ela 
tion  of  pride,  but  only  a  deepened  sense  of  responsibility  in  his 
new  office.  "  I  walk  on  untrodden  ground,"  he  wrote  ;  "  there  is 
scarcely  any  action  the  motive  of  which  may  not  be  subjected 
to  a  double  interpretation ;  there  is  scarcely  any  part  of  my 
conduct  that  may  not  hereafter  be  drawn  into  precedent."  All 

1  North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island  did  not  come  into  the  Union  until  some 
months  after  Washington's  inauguration. 


Federalists  and  Republicans  187 

eyes  were  upon  him.  His  task  was  immense.  He  had  to  create 
the  democratic  dignity  of  the  President's  office,  to  choose  wise 
counselors,  to  appoint  upright  and  able  judges,  to  hold  factions  in 
check,  to  deal  wisely  with  the  representatives  of  foreign  powers, 
to  set  a  precedent  for  the  relations  of  the  executive  to  Con 
gress,  to  preserve  the  due  forms  of  official  ceremony  without 
offending  republican  principles  ;  and  it  needed  every  particle  of 
his  wisdom,  his  tact,  his  patience,  his  zeal,  to  accomplish  the  task. 

After  some  entreaty  Washington  prevailed  on  Thomas  Jeff er-  241.  Thomas 
son  to  give  up  his  diplomatic  position  as  minister  to  France  and  secretary  of 
become  Secretary  of  State  in  the  first  cabinet.  Jefferson  was  a  state 
great  statesman  and  scholar,  with  an  intense  faith  in  the  sound 
common  sense  of  the  people,  and  an  equally  strong  distrust  of 
a  powerful  executive  government.  He  said  that  as  between 
newspapers  without  a  government  or  a  government  without 
newspapers,  he  preferred  the  former.  His  enthusiasm  for  the 
democratic  ideal  had  been  strengthened  by  a  wide  and  sympa 
thetic  reading  of  the  great  French  political  philosophers  who 
were  helping  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  French  Revolution. 
Sometimes  this  enthusiasm  led  him  to  extreme  statements,  as, 
for  example,  that  a  revolution  every  twenty  years  or  so  was 
good  for  a  nation ;  but  his  practice  was  more  moderate  than  his 
theory,  and  he  never  actually  encouraged  or  supported  any  revo 
lution  except  the  great  one  which  made  us  an  independent  nation. 
He  differed  widely  from  Washington  in  his  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution  and  in  his  foreign  policy,  but  nevertheless,  during 
the  four  years  which  he  served  in  the  cabinet,  he  was  a  loyal 
and  efficient  officer,  and  his  resignation  was  accepted  in  1793 
with  expressions  of  sincere  regret  and  eulogy  by  his  chief. 

For  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  Washington  chose  Alexander  242.  Alex- 
Hamilton.    Hamilton  was  born  in  1757,  of  Scotch  and  French  t 

blood,  in  the  British  island  of  Nevis  in  the  West  Indies.    On  ofthe 

Treasury 

account  of  his  precocious  gifts  of  intellect  he  was  sent  to  New 
York  in  his  early  teens  to  be  educated  at  Kings  (Columbia)  Col 
lege.  He  plunged  immediately  into  the  stirring  political  battle 


1 88  The  New  Republic 

raised  by  the  Stamp  Act  and  the  Townshend  duties,  embracing 
the  patriot  cause.  He  served  as  Washington's  aid-de-camp  during 
the  Revolution,  sat  in  the  convention  that  framed  the  Constitu 
tion,  and,  by  his  brilliant  essays  in  "  The  Federalist "  and  debates 
in  the  New  York  convention,  secured  almost  single-handed  the 
ratification  of  the  Constitution  by  his  state.  He  differed  abso 
lutely  from  Jefferson  on  every  question  of  the  interpretation  of 
the  Constitution  and  the  policy  of  the  government.  The  two 
men,  each  convinced  of  the  justice  and  necessity  of  his  own 
view,  glared  at  each  other  across  the  cabinet  table,  and  even 
on  occasions  rose  trembling  with  rage,  ready  to  lay  violent 
hands  on  each  other.  Each  begged  the  President  to  choose 
between  them  and  let  the  other  resign.  But  Washington,  partly 
to  keep  in  his  cabinet  representatives  of  opposite  views  in 
public  policy,  partly  because  he  did  not  want  to  spare  the  valu 
able  services  of  either  of  them,  prevailed  on  them  both  to 
remain  in  the  cabinet  during  his  first  administration. 

243.  The  An  immense  and  varied  mass  of  business  confronted  the  first 
fore  congress  Congress  of  the   United   States.    The  executive  departments 

(State,  Treasury,  War)  had  to  be  created,  salaries  fixed,  and 
appropriations  made  for  running  the  government.  Federal 
courts  and  post  offices  had  to  be  established.  The  Indians 
on  the  northern  and  western  borders  had  to  be  subdued,  and 
provision  made  for  governing  the  territories.  The  seventy- 
eight  amendments  which  the  various  states  had  suggested 
on  accepting  the  Constitution  had  to  be  debated  and  reduced 
to  suitable  form  and  number  to  submit  to  the  people  of  each 
state  for  ratification.  Twelve  amendments  were  actually  sub 
mitted,  and  ten  adopted.  The  first  census  of  the  United  States 
had  to  be  taken,  and  a  site  selected  for  the  permanent  capital 
of  the  Union. 

244.  The  But  the  most  urgent  business  before  Congress  was  the  settle- 
financial  situ-  ..    . 

ation  rnent  of  the  country's  finances.    Alexander  Hamilton  occupies 

the  center  of  the  stage  in  Washington's  first  administration. 
The  brilliant  young  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had  two  great 


Federalists  and  Republicans  1 89 

problems  to  handle,  namely,  the  establishment  of  the  credit  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  providing  of  an  adequate  income  to 
meet  the  expenses  of  the  government.  How  well  he  solved 
these  problems  we  may  learn  from  the  ornate  eulogy  bestowed 
on  him  forty  years  later  by  Daniel  Webster :  "  He  smote  the 
rock  of  the  national  resources,  and  abundant  streams  of  revenue 
gushed  forth.  He  touched  the  dead  corpse  of  Public  Credit,  and 
it  sprang  upon  its  feet." 

The  debt  of  the  United  States  in  1789  was  $54,000,000.  245.  The 
About  $12,000,000  of  this  was  owed  to  France  and  Holland,  united  states 
who  had  been  our  allies  in  the  Revolutionary  War ;  and  the  re 
mainder  was  a  domestic  debt,  mostly  in  the  form  of  certificates 
of  the  government  promising  to  pay  the  holder  the  amount 
named  on  the  paper.  Now  everybody  agreed  that  the  good  faith 
of  the  United  States  demanded  that  every  dollar  of  the  foreign 
debt  should  be  paid.  But  Hamilton's  proposal  to  pay  the  do 
mestic  debt  as  well,  at  its  full  face  value,  was  strenuously  resisted. 
During  the  weak  administration  of  the  Confederation  the  certifi 
cates,  or  the  government's  promises  to  pay,  had  fallen  far  below 
the  value  named  on  their  face.  Honest  debtors  had  been  forced 
to  part  with  these  government  certificates  at  only  a  fraction  of 
their  value,  and  shrewd  money  changers  had  bought  them  up 
as  a  speculation.  It  was  even  hinted  by  Hamilton's  enemies 
that  he  had  given  his  friends  and  political  supporters  advance 
information  that  he  was  going  to  pay  the  full  value  of  the  cer 
tificates,  and  so  enabled  them  to  buy  up  the  paper  and  make 
enormous  profits  out  of  the  government.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  it  enriched  some  rascals  at  the  expense  of  the  community 
at  large,  Hamilton  insisted  that  the  full  faith  of  the  United 
States  be  kept,  and  that  the  certificates  be  redeemed  at  their 
face  value.  It  would  be  the  only  way,  he  argued,  to  prevent 
future  holders  from  selling  at  a  discount  our  government's 
pledges  to  pay.  He  was  right.  Since  his  'day  the  credit  of  the 
United  States  has  been  so  sound  that  its-  bonds,  or  promises 
to  pay  at  a  future  date,  have  been  as  good  as  gold. 


190  The  New  Republic 

246.  The  Hamilton  went  even  a  step  further  in  his  policy  of  making 

tio"»  ofthe  the  United  States  a  power  entitled  to  respect  and  confidence  in 

debts  of  the   ^  e       of  faQ  wor}dt   rp he  various  states  of  the  Union  had  con 
states  j 

tracted  debts  during  the  Revolutionary  War  to  the  amount  of 

some  $20,000,000.  On  the  ground  that  debts  incurred  for  the 
common  defense  of  the  country  should  be  paid  out  of  the  com 
mon  treasury  of  the  country,  Hamilton  proposed  to  Congress 
that  the  United  States  should  assume  this  $20,000,000  of  state 
debts.  This  policy  of  "  assumption  "  was  a  very  shrewd  one, 
for,  by  making  the  national  government  instead  of  the  thirteen 
state  governments  responsible  for  the  country's  debt,  it  taught 
creditors  both  at  home  and  abroad  to  regard  the  United  States 
as  a  single  political  power,  greater  than  the  sum  of  its  parts, 
the  states.  It  made  possible  a  uniform  rate  of  interest  and 
standard  of  security  for  all  the  public  debt ;  and,  as  men  are 
always  interested  in  the  prosperity  of  those  who  owe  them 
money,  it  rallied  the  rich  investing  classes  to  the  support  of  the 
national  government. 

247.  A  pro-        To'meet  the  interest  on  the  $75,000,000  made  by  adding  the 
levied  state  debts  to  the  full  face  value  and  unpaid  interest  of  the  old 

national  debt  under  the  Confederation,  an  annual  revenue  of 
over  $4,500,000  was  needed.  Hamilton  proposed  to  raise  this 
money  by  a  tariff,  or  customs  duties  levied  on  imported  goods.1 
As  our  foreign  trade  was  large,  a  tariff  averaging  less  than  10 
per  cent  was  sufficient  to  meet  the  demand.  Besides  providing 
a  revenue  for  running  the  government,  the  duties  levied  on  im 
ported  goods  would  encourage  native  manufactures  by  "  pro 
tecting"  them  against  European  competition.  Our  country 
would  thus  cease  to  be  an  almost  purely  agricultural  community, 
with  the  limited  outlook  and  interests  of  a  farming  people ;  cities 
would  grow  up,  and  the  various  fields  of  enterprise  opened  by 

1  Tariff  is  an  Arabic  word  meaning,  literally,  a  "  list"  or  "  schedule."  We  use 
the  word  for  duties  levied  on  imported  goods,  while  the  duty  on  domestic  goods 
is  called  internal  revenue.  The  theory  of  the  tariff  is  discussed  at  length  further 
on  in  this  book  (Chapter  IX). 


Federalists  and  Republicans  191 

manufacture  and  commerce  would  give  employment  to  people  of 
varied  talents,  would  attract  immigrants  from  foreign  countries, 
and  would  promote  inventiveness  and  alertness  in  our  population. 

The  crowning  feature  of  Hamilton's  financial  system  was  the  248.  A  Na- 
establishment  of  a  National  Bank,  chartered  by  Congress  to  act  chartered"1* 
as  the  government's  agent  and  medium  in  its  money  transac 
tions.  The  Bank  was  to  have  the  privilege  of  holding  on  deposit 
all  the  funds  of  the  United  States  collected  from  customs  duties, 
the  sale  of  public  lands,  or  other  sources;  $2,000,000  of  the 
$10,000,000  of  the  Bank's  capital  was  to  be  subscribed  by  the 
United  States,  and  its  notes  were  to  be  accepted  in  payment  of  all 
debts  owed  the  United  States.  In  return  for  these  favors  the 
Bank  was  to  manage  all  the  government  loans,  was  to  be  ready 
in  time  of  financial  stress  to  furnish  aid  to  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States,  and  was  to  be  subject  to  the  general  supervision 
of  the  national  government  through  reports  on  its  condition  sub 
mitted  not  oftener  than  weekly  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

The  whole  financial  program  of  Hamilton,  which  we  have  249.  opposi- 
,v       i   •     i    •    r  .  ,    ,  .  .  rr,,  .         tiontoHamil- 

outlmed  in  brief,  met  with  bitter  antagonism.    The  assumption  ton>s  finan. 

of  state  debts  was  opposed  by  states  like  Virginia  and  North  cialP°licy 
Carolina,  which,  through  the  sale  of  their  western  lands  had 
nearly  paid  off  their  debts,  and  objected  to  sharing  in  the  taxa 
tion  for  the  payment  of  the  debts  of  the  less  fortunate  or  less 
thrifty  states.  The  tariff  was  opposed  by  the  purely  agricultural 
states  of  the  South,  which  contended  that  the  government  had 
no  business  to  encourage  one  form  of  industry  (manufactures) 
in  preference  to  another  (farming).  The  Bank  was  opposed  on 
the  ground  that  Congress  was  nowhere  in  the  Constitution  given 
the  power  to  create  a  corporation  and  to  favor  it  with  a  monop 
oly  of  the  government's  financial  business.  In  his  famous  re 
ports  and  recommendations  to  Congress  in  the  years  1790  and 
1791  Hamilton  argued  his  cause  with  such  force  and  brilliancy 
that  he  overcame  opposition  and  put  his  whole  program  through ; 
although  in  some  instances,  as  in  the  case  of  "  assumption,"  only 
by  the  narrowest  majorities. 


192 


The  New  Republic 


250.  The 

first  parties: 
Democratic- 
Republicans 
(Jefferson) 
and  Federal 
ists  (Hamil 
ton) 


251.  Antag 
onism  be 
tween  the 
political  ideas 
of  Hamilton 
and  Jefferson 


The  result  of  Hamilton's  policy  was  the  division  of  the  cab 
inet,  Congress,  and  the  country  at  large  into  two  well-defined 
parties,  one  led  by  himself  (to  which  both  Washington  and  the 
Vice  President,  John  Adams,  inclined),  the  other  led  by  Jefferson. 
Hamilton's  followers  were  called  Federalists,  because  they  ad 
vocated  a  strong  federal  (central)  government  as  opposed  to 
the  state  governments.  The  Jeffersonian  party  took  the  name 
Democratic-Republican,  from  which  they  very  soon  dropped  the 
"  Democratic "  part,  as  the  word  was  brought  into  disrepute 
by  extreme  revolutionists  in  France.1  The  Republican  party  of 
Jefferson's  day  (to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the  present 
Republican  party,  which  was  organized  in  1854  in  opposition 
to  the  extension  of  negro  slavery)  had  its  chief  following  in  the 
Southern  states.  It  favored  agriculture  as  against  manufactur 
ing  industries.  It  advocated  the  "  strict  construction "  of  the 
Constitution.  Finally,  the  Republicans  had  confidence  in  the 
people  at  large  to  conduct  the  greater  part  of  the  business  of 
government  in  their  local  institutions  of  state,  county,  and  town  ; 
whereas  the  Federalists  believed  that  a  part  of  the  people,  "  the 
rich,  the  well-born,  and  the  able,"  as  John  Adams  wrote,  should 
govern  the  rest.  Hamilton  even  went  so  far,  in  a  political 
argument  with  Jefferson,  as  to  bring  his  fist  down  on  the  table 
and  shout,  "  Your/<?0//<?,  sir,  is  nothing  but  a  great  beast ! " 

Jefferson's  ideal,  in  a  word,  was  a  government  for  the  people 
and  by  the  people,  while  Hamilton's  ideal  was  a  government 
for  the  people  by  the  trained  statesmen  allied  with  the  great 
property  holders.  The  former  is  the  democratic  ideal,  the  latter 
the  aristocratic  or  paternal  ideal.  In  varying  degrees  of  inten 
sity  these  two  conceptions  of  government  have  been  arrayed 
against  each  other  through  the  entire  history  of  our  country. 
Party  names  have  changed ;  men  have  called  themselves  Fed 
eralists,  Republicans,'  Democrats,  Whigs,  Populists,  Socialists  ; 
parties  have  emphasized  scores  of  "  paramount  issues,"  such  as 

1  See  Robinson  and  Beard,  The  Development  of  Modern  Europe,  Vol.  I, 
p.  264,  «  The  Reign  of  Terror." 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 


Federalists  and  Republicans 


193 


a  national  bank,  the  tariff,  state  rights,  the  acquisition  of  new 
territory,  curbing  the  trusts,  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  and  the 
government  ownership  of  the  railroads.  But  underneath  all 


Washington's  Home  at  Mount  Vernon 

these  party  issues  lies  the  fundamental  antagonism  of  the  Jeffer- 
sonian  and  the  Hamiltonian  principles,  —  democracy  or  paternal 
ism,  jealous  limitation  of  the  powers  granted  to  the  national 
government  or  deliberate  extension  and  confirmation  of  them. 

THE  REIGN  OF  FEDERALISM 

As  the  election  of  1792  approached,  Washington  wished  to  252.  There- 
exchange  the  cares  of  the  presidency  for  his  beloved  acres  of  Washington, 
Mount  Vernon,  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac.    But  he  yielded  I792 
to  Hamilton's  entreaty  and  became  a  candidate  for  a  second 
term.    The  financial  policy  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
had  aroused  bitter  antagonism,  and  was  rapidly  consolidating 
the  opposition  party  of  Republicans,  headed  by  Thomas  Jeffer 
son.    If  the  strong  hand  of  Washington  should  be  withdrawn 
from  the  government  at  this  critical  moment,  the  work  of  three 
years  might  be  ruined  by  the  strife  of  parties  before  it  had  had 
time  to  prove  its  worth.    Washington  was  the  only  man  above 
the  party  discord.    His  election  was  again  unanimous,  but  the 


194  The  New  Republic 

Republican  party  proved  its  strength  throughout  the  country 
by  electing  a  majority  to  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
third  Congress  (1793-1795). 

253.  The  Washington  had  scarcely  taken  the  oath  of  office  a  second 
Stlon1  *      "  time  when  news  came  of  events  in  France  which  were  to  plunge 

Europe  into  twenty  years  of  incessant  warfare,  to  color  the 
politics  of  the  United  States  during  the  whole  period,  and  even 
to  involve  us  in  actual  wars  with  both  France  and  England. 
The  French  people  accomplished  a  wonderful  revolution  in  the 
years  1789-1791.  They  reformed  State  and  Church  by  sweep 
ing  away  many  oppressive  privileges  and  age-long  abuses  by 
the  nobles  and  the  clergy.  But  the  enthusiasm  for  reform  de 
generated  into  a  passion  for  destruction.  Paris  and  the  French 
government  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  small  group  of  ardent  radi 
cals,  who  overthrew  the  ancient  monarchy,  guillotined  their  king 
and  queen,  and  inaugurated  a  "  reign  of  terror  "  through  the 
land  by  the  execution  of  all  those  who  were  suspected  of  the 
slightest  leanings  toward  aristocracy.  The  revolutionary  French 
republic  undertook  a  defiant  crusade  against  all  the  thrones  of 
Europe,  to  spread  the  gospel  of  "liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity." 
In  the  summer  of  1793  it  was  at  war  with  Prussia,  Austria,  Eng 
land,  and  several  minor  kingdoms  of  western  Europe.1 

254.  wash-         Now  France  was  our  ally.    Her  government  had  been  the 
proclamation   nrst  m  Europe  to  recognize  the  independence  of  the  United 
ity^Apdi'w    States'  by  the  treaties  of  commerce  and  alliance  of  1778.    Her 
1793  king  had  lent  us  large  sums  of  money,  and  sent  us  men  and 

ships,  in  the  hope  that  he  was  contributing  to  the  downfall  of 
the  British  Empire.  The  treaty  of  alliance  of  1778  pledged  us 
to  aid  France  in  the  defense  of  her  possessions  in  the  West 
Indies  if  they  were  attacked  by  a  foreign  foe,  and  to  allow  her 
the  use  of  our  ports  for  the  ships  she  captured  in  war.  But  did 
the  treaty  with  Louis  XVI's  government,  made  for  mutual  de 
fense  against  England,  pledge  us,  after  both  parties  had  made 

1  For  the  course  of  the  French  Revolution,  see  Robinson  and  Beard,  The 
Development  of  Modern  Europe,  Vol.  I,  chap.  xiii. 


Federalists  and  Republicans  195 

peace  with  England  (1783),  to  support  the  French  republic 
which  had  overthrown  Louis  XVFs  government?  The  Presi 
dent  thought  .not.  Accordingly,  with  the  unanimous  assent  of 
his  cabinet,  Washington  issued  on  April  22,  1793,  a  proclama 
tion  of  neutrality,  which  declared  that  it  was  the  policy  of  the 
United  States  to  keep  entirely  aloof  from  the  complicated  hos 
tilities  of  Europe.  It  was  a  second  declaration  of  independence. 

The  proclamation  of  neutrality  was  prompted  by  the  state  of  255.  Reasons 
our  own  country  as  well  as  by  that  of  Europe.  On  our  north-  t?aiity  n 
western  frontier  the  British  were  still  in  possession  of  a  line 
of  valuable  fur  posts  extending  along  our  side  of  the  Great 
Lakes  from  Oswego  to  Mackinaw ;  and  were  secretly  encour 
aging  the  Indians  to  dispute  the  occupation  of  the  Ohio  valley 
with  the  emigrants  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  To  the  south 
and  southwest  the  Spaniards  were  inciting  the  Creeks  and  Chero- 
kees  of  Florida  against  the  inhabitants  of  Georgia,  and,  by  clos 
ing  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  to  our  western  shipping,  were 
tempting  the  pioneers  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  from  their 
allegiance  to  the  United  States.  To  have  joined  France  in  her 
war  against  England  and  Spain,  therefore,  would  have  been  to 
let  loose  the  horrors  of  Indian  massacre  on  our  borders,  to  risk 
the  permanent  loss  of  our  trading  posts  on  the  Great  Lakes, 
and  perhaps  to  throw  the  pioneer  communities  of  the  southwest 
into  the  arms  of  Spain,  who  offered  them  free  use  of  the  great 
river  for  the  transportation  of  their  hogs  and  grain.  Neutrality 
was  an  absolute  necessity  for  the  maintenance  of  our  territory 
and  the  amicable  settlement  of  disputes  then  pending  with  our 
neighbors  England  and  Spain. 

A  few  days  before  the  proclamation  of  neutrality  was  issued  256.  «  citi- 
"  Citizen  Genet "  arrived  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  as  min-  "^1 
ister  of  the  French  republic  to  the  United  States.    Genet  had 
no  idea  that  America  could  remain  neutral.    He  was  coming 
quite  frankly  in  order  to  use  our  ports  as  the  base  of  naval  war 
against  the  British  West  Indies,  and  to  instruct  this  government 
in  its  proper  conduct  as  the  ally  of  the  "  sister  republic "  of 


ig6  The  New  Republic 

France.  His  journey  from  Charleston  to  Philadelphia  was  a 
continuous  ovation  of  feasting,  oratory,  and  singing  of  the 
"  Marseillaise  "  by  the  Republicans,  who  hated  England  as  the 
source  of  the  "  aristocratic  "  ideas  of  Hamilton  and  the  other 
Federalists.  Genet  was  vain  and  rash.  His  head  was  turned 
by  Republican  adulation.  His  conduct  became  outrageous  for 
a  diplomat.  He  issued  his  orders  to  the  French  consuls  in 
America  as  if  they  were  his  paid  agents  and  spies.  He  used 
the  columns  of  the  Republican  press  for  frenzied  appeals  to 
faction.  He  scolded  our  President  and  secretaries  for  not  learn 
ing  from  him  the  true  meaning  of  democracy.  He  defied  the 
proclamation  of  neutrality  by  openly  bringing  captured  British 
ships  into  our  ports  and  fitting  them  out  as  privateers  to  prey 
on  English  commerce  in  the  West  Indies.  He  even  addressed 
his  petulant  letters  to  Washington,  and  when  reminded  by  the 
Secretary  of  State  that  the  President  did  not  communicate 
directly  with  ministers  of  foreign  countries,  he  threatened  to 
appeal  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  judge  between 
George  Washington  and  himself.  Such  conduct  was  too  im 
pertinent  for  even  the  warmest  Republican  sympathizers  with 
France  to  stand.  At  the  request  of  the  administration  Genet 
was  recalled.  His  behavior  had  brought  discredit  on  the  extreme 
Republicans  and  strengthened  the  hands  of  the  Federalists. 
257.  strained  A  more  serious  problem  for  the  administration  of  Washing- 
wit^Great  ton  tnan  tne  maintenance  of  neutrality  was  the  preservation  of 
Britain,  peace  with  England.  We  have  already  seen  how  British  gar 
risons  still  held  fortified  posts  on  our  shores  of  the  Great 
Lakes.  The  value  of  the  fur  trade  at  the  posts  was  over 
$1,500,000  annually,  and  the  excuse  Great  Britain  gave  for  not 
surrendering  them  was  that  American  merchants  owed  large 
debts  in  England  at  the  time  of  the  treaty  of  1783,  which  our 
government  had  not  compelled  them  to  pay.  We,  on  our  side, 
complained  that  the  British,  on  the  evacuation  of  our  seaports 
at  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  had  carried  off  a  number  of 
our  slaves  in  their  ships;  had  closed  the  West  Indian  ports 


INTERVIEW    BETWEEN   WASHINGTON    AND    CITIZEN    GENET 


Federalists  and  Republicans 


197 


to  our  trade ;  had  refused  to  send  a  minister  to  our  country ; 
and,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  with  France  in  1793,  had  be 
gun  to  stop  our  merchantmen  on  the  high  seas  to  search  them 
for  deserters  from  the  British  navy,  and  had  actually  "  impressed" 
into  British  service  many  genuine  American  citizens.  The  ex 
asperated  merchants  of  New  England  joined  with  the  Republican 
friends  of  France  in  demanding  war  with  England.  A  bill  to 
stop  all  trade  with  Great  Britain  (a  "  Nonintercourse  Act ") 
was  defeated  in  the  Senate  only  by  the  casting  vote  of  Vice 

President  Adams,  who  wrote 
that  many  in  the  country 
were  "in  a  panic  lest  peace 
should  continue."  At  a  hint 
from  Washington,  Congress 
would  have  declared  war  on 
Great  Britain. 

But  Washington  was  deter-  258.  The  jay 
mined    to    have    peace.     He  Treaty' I795 
nominated  John  Jay,  chief  jus 
tice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  as 
special  envoy  to  Great  Britain 
to  negotiate  a  new  treaty.    Jay 
sailed  in  May,  1794,  and  re 
turned  just  a  year  later  with 
the  best  terms  he  could  obtain 


John  Jay 


from  the  British  ministry.  England  agreed  to  evacuate  the  fur 
posts  by  the  first  of  June,  1796,  and  to  submit  to  arbitration 
the  questions  of  disputed  boundaries,  damages  to  American 
shipping,  and  the  debts  due  British  merchants;  but  she  re 
fused  to  make  any  compensation  for  the  stolen  slaves,  and 
made  such  slight  concessions  to  our  trade  in  the  West  Indies 
that  the  Senate  threw  out  that  clause  of  the  treaty  entirely. 
On  the  most  important  point  of  all,  the  forcible  arrest  and 
search  of  our  vessels  for  the  impressment  of  seamen,  the  treaty 
was  silent. 


198 


The  New  Republic 


259.  opposi-  A  storm  of  opposition  greeted  the  treaty  in  America.  Those 
treaty0  inhe  who  wanted  Jay  to  fail  in  order  that  the  war  with  England 
America  might  be  renewed,  and  those  who  wanted  him  to  succeed  in 


T~~* 
/ 


-  -/  v-  <^2^°*^ 

-^^^c/T^i-  x/CL  <Z&z&c^cCtv~ 
fSUc^L. 


By  Courtesy  of  The  Burrows  Brothers  C 


,  from  Avery's  "History  of  the  United  States  " 


Facsimile  of  the  First  Page  of  Washington's  Farewell  Address 

securing  advantageous  terms  from  England,  were  both  disap 
pointed.  Jay,  who  was  one  of  the  purest  statesmen  in  American 
history,  was  accused  of  selling  his  country  for  British  gold,  and 
was  burned  in  effigy  from  Massachusetts  to  Georgia.  Hamilton 


Federalists  and  Republicans  199 

was  stoned  in  the  streets  of  New  York  for  speaking  in  favor 
of  the  treaty.  Even  Washington  did  not  escape  censure,  abuse, 
and  vilification.  However,  the  President  was  persuaded  that  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  were  the  best  that  could  be  obtained,  and 
his  influence  barely  secured  the  necessary  two-thirds  vote  of  the 
Senate  to  ratify  it  (June  24,  1795). 

The  same  year  that  war  with  England  was  averted  Thomas  260.  The 
Pinckney  was  sent  as  special  envoy  to  the  court  of  Spain,  and  xreaty^with 
there  negotiated  a  treaty  opening  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  Spaiit,  1795 
to  our  vessels  and  giving  us  the  right  of  unloading  and  reship- 
ping  our  goods  at  New  Orleans. 

Thus  Washington  closed  the  critical  years  of  his  second  ad-  261.  wash- 
ministration  at  peace  with  the  world.    In  a  farewell  address 


to  the  people  of  America,  published  six  months  before  his  re-  tration  as  a 

Federalist 
tirement  from  office,  he  warned  the  country  against  entangling 

alliances  with  foreign  nations,  and  the  spirit  of  faction  at  home. 
He  had  attempted  himself  to  give  the  country  a  nonpartisan 
administration,  but  during  his  second  term  he  had  inclined  more 
and  more  to  Federalist  principles.  Jefferson  and  Randolph,  the 
two  Republican  members  of  his  cabinet,  had  resigned,  and  their 
places  had  been  taken  by  Federalists.  Determined  that  the  laws 
of  Congress  should  be  obeyed  in  every  part  of  every  state  of  the 
Union,  the  administration  had  summoned  the  militia  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  Delaware,  New  Jersey,  and  Maryland,  fifteen  thousand 
strong,  to  march  against  certain  riotous  counties  in  western 
Pennsylvania,  where  the  taxes  on  whisky  distilleries  were  re 
sisted  and  the  United  States  excise  officers  attacked.1 

The  Republicans  opposed  the  administration  at  every  step.  262.  Bitter 
The  press  on  both  sides  became  coarse  and  abusive.    Washing-  JJ^h^cain-8 
ton  was  reviled  in  language  fit  to  characterize  a  Nero.    "  Tyrant,"  Pai£n  of  J796 

1  The  "Whisky  Rebellion  "  (1794)  collapsed  in  the  face  of  this  prompt  ac 
tion  by  the  government,  and  Washington,  who  had  marched  in  person  part  of 
the  way  with  the  army,  returned  in  relief  to  the  capital.  The  Republicans  alter 
nately  ridiculed  the  administration  for  its  elaborate  military  preparations  against 
a  "  few  irate  farmers,"  and  censured  it  for  being  willing  to  shed  the  blood  of 
American  citizens  over  a  few  barrels  of  stolen  whisky. 


200 


The  New  Republic 


263.  Presi 
dent  Adams 
inherits  a 
quarrel  with 
France,  1797 


264.  The 
French  Direc 
tory  insults 
Adams's  em 
bassy  (the 
"X  Y  Z 
Affair  "  ) 


"  dictator,"  and  "  despot "  were  some  of  the  epithets  hurled  at 
him.  He  was  called  the  "  stepfather  of  his  country,"  and  the 
day  was  hailed  with  joy  by  the  Republican  press  when  this 
impostor  should  be  "  hurled  from  his  throne."  The  election  of 
1796  was  a  bitter  party  struggle,  in  which  the  Federalist  candi 
date,  John  Adams,  won  over  Thomas  Jefferson  by  only  three 
electoral  votes  (7 1  to  68). 

Our  quarrel  with  France  was  the  all-absorbing  feature  of 
Adams's  administration.  Chagrined  as  the  French  Republicans 
were  by  the  refusal  of  Washington's  government  to  join  them 
in  the  war  against  England,  they  were  furious  when  they  learned 
of  the  Jay  Treaty.  Was  their  ally  thus  to  make  terms,  and  such 
servile  terms,  with  their  enemy  ?  Was  the  "  sister  republic  "  of 
America  to  join  with  aristocratic  Britain  against  the  liberty  of 
mankind  ?  Our  minister  in  Paris,  James  Monroe,  letting  his 
republican  enthusiasm  get  the  better  of  his  diplomatic  judgment, 
had  overstepped  his  powers  in  assuring  the  leaders  of  the 
French  republic  that  the  United  States  would  make  no  treaty 
with  England.  When,  therefore,  the  Jay  Treaty  was  signed  and 
ratified,  it  became  necessary  for  Washington  to  send  a  new  min 
ister  to  Paris.  Charles  C.  Pinckney  was  appointed  in  June,  1796, 
but  when  he  presented  his  credentials  in  December,  the  French 
government  not  only  refused  to  accept  them,  but  even  ordered 
the  new  minister  to  leave  the  borders  of  France. 

This  was  outrageous  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  Directory,  as 
the  executive  board  of  five  men  at  the  head  of  the  French  re 
public  during  the  years  1795-1799  was  called.  Adams,  just 
entering  his  term  of  office,  acted  with  admirable  decision  and 
courage.  He  addressed  a  special  session  of  Congress  in  a  mes 
sage  which  declared  that  such  conduct  "  ought  to  be  repelled 
with  a  decision  which  should  convince  France  and  the  world 
that  we  are  not  a  degraded  people,  humiliated  under  a  colonial 
spirit  of  fear."  Still  Adams  desired  peace,  and,  on  a  hint  from 
Talleyrand,  the  French  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  that  an  em 
bassy  would  be  received  to  discuss  the  political  and  commercial 


Federalists  and  Republicans  201 

disputes  between  the  two  countries,  he  appointed  John  Marshall 
of  Virginia  and  Elbridge  Gerry  of  Massachusetts  to  join  Pinck- 
ney  in  negotiating  a  settlement  with  France.  But  the  embassy 
was  treated  even  worse  than  the  minister  had  been.  The  Direc 
tory  showed  itself  not  only  arrogant  but  corrupt.  Refusing  to 
treat  directly  with  the  ambassadors,  Talleyrand  sent  three  private 
citizens  to  them  as  agents,  demanding  that  before  any  negoti 
ations  were  opened  Adams  should  apologize  to  France  for  the 
language  of  his  message  to  Congress,  and  that  a  large  sum  of 
money  should  be  paid  into  the  private  purses  of  the  directors. 
The  American  commissioners  indignantly  repelled  this  unblush 
ing  attempt  to  extort  a  bribe,  and  quitted  Paris  in  disgust.1 

When  Adams  submitted  to  Congress,  and  Congress  published  265.  A  state 
to  the  nation,  this  second  insult  of  the  French  Directory,  a  wave  Fra^ 
of  indignation  swept  over  our  land.  Adams  sent  a  strong  mes-  1798-1800 
sage  to  Congress,  declaring  that  he  had  done  everything  in  his 
power  to  preserve  the  peace.  "  I  will  never  send  another  min 
ister  to  France,"  he  said,  "  without  assurances  that  he  will  be 
received,  respected,  and  honored  as  the  representative  of  a 
great,  free,  powerful,  and  independent  nation."  The  great  ma 
jority  of  Americans  heartily  applauded  the  language  of  the  Pres 
ident  and  joined  in  the  new  patriotic  song  "  Hail  Columbia,"  with 
huzzas  for  "  Adams  and  liberty."  Preparations  for  war  were 
begun.  Eighty  thousand  militia  were  held  in  readiness  for  service 
and  George  Washington  was  called  to  the  chief  command,  with 
Hamilton  and  Knox  as  his  major  generals.  The  Navy  Depart 
ment  was  created  and  ships  of  war  were  laid  down.  Congress 
did  not  actually  declare  war  on  the  French  republic,  but  it  abro 
gated  the  treaties  of  1778  and  authorized  our  ships  to  prey 
upon  French  commerce.  From  midsummer  of  1798  to  the 
close  of  the  following  year  a  state  of  war  with  France  existed, 
and  several  battles  were  fought  at  sea. 

1  This  insulting  attempt  to  bribe  the  American  commissioners  is  called  the 
"X  Y  Z  Affair,"  because  the  three  French  agents  were  designated  by  those 
letters,  instead  of  by  name,  in  the  published  dispatches. 


202  The  New  Republic 

266.  Adams       Then  Napoleon  Bonaparte  overthrew  the  weak  and  corrupt 
vrittNapo-6  government  of  the  Directory  and  made  himself  master  of  France 
icon,  1801       under  the  title  of  First  Consul.    Napoleon  desired  peace  with 

America ;  he  had  enemies  enough  in  Europe.  He  signified  his 
willingness  to  receive  a  minister  from  the  United  States,  and 
President  Adams,  to  the  great  disappointment  of  the  Feder 
alists,  who  were  bent  on  war,  but  to  his  own  lasting  honor  as  a 
patriot,  accepted  Napoleon's  overtures  and  concluded  a  fair  con 
vention  with  France  in  February,  1801.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  new  century  we  were  again  at  peace  with  the  world. 

267.  Alien         But  the  government  had  already  passed  from  the  Federalists, 
acts,  i79810n  In  the  heyday  of  their  power,  in  the  exciting  summer  of  1798, 

they  had  carried  through  Congress  a  set  of  laws  designed  to 
silence  opposition  to  the  administration.  A  Naturalization  Act 
increased  from  five  to  fourteen  years  the  term  of  residence  in 
the  United  States  necessary  to  make  a  foreigner  a  citizen.  An 
Alien  Act  gave  the  President  power  for  a  term  of  two  years 
"  to  order  all  such  aliens  as  he  should  judge  dangerous  to  the 
peace  and  safety  of  the  United  States  ...  to  depart  out  of  the 
territory  of  the  United  States."  A  Sedition  Act,  to  be  valid  till 
the  close  of  Adams's  administration,  provided  that  any  one  writ 
ing  or  publishing  "  any  false,  scandalous,  and  malicious  writings" 
against  the  government,  either  house  of  Congress,  or  the  Presi 
dent,  "  or  exciting  against  them  the  hatred  of  the  good  people 
of  the  United  States,  to  stir  up  sedition,"  should  be  punished  by 
a  fine  not  exceeding  $2000  and  by  imprisonment  not  exceeding 
two  years.  These  Alien  and  Sedition  acts  were  opposed  by 
Patrick  Henry,  Marshall,  Hamilton,  and  other  clearsighted 
Federalists;  but  in  the  hysterical  war  fever  of  1798  any  legis 
lation  directed  against  French  immigrants  and  the  unbridled 
insolence  of  the  Republican  press  was  sure  to  pass. 

268.  The  The  Republicans  immediately  took  up  the  challenge  of  the 
Kentucky       Alien  and   Sedition   acts.    The  legislatures  of   Kentucky  and 
resoiut  ms,    Virginia  passed  resolutions  in  November  and  December,  1798, 

prepared  by  Jefferson  and  Madison  respectively.    The  former 


Federalists  and  Republicans  203 

declared  the  Sedition  Act  "altogether  void  and  of  no  effect"; 
and  the  latter  characterized  the  acts  as  "  alarming  infractions 
of  the  Constitution,"  which  guarantees  freedom  of  speech  and 
of  the  press  (First  Amendment).  Kentucky  and  Virginia  invited 
the  other  states  to  join  with  them  in  denouncing  the  acts  and 
demanding  their  repeal  at  the  next  session  of  Congress.  These 
resolutions  are  of  great  importance  as  the  first  assertion  of  the 
power  of  the  states,  through  their  legislatures,  to  judge  whether 
the  laws  passed  by  Congress  are  valid  (constitutional)  or  not. 

The  Alien  and  Sedition  acts  furnished  fine  campaign  mate-  269.  Defeat 
rial  for  the  Republicans,  who  could  now  change  their  poor  role  aiists  i? the" 
of  champions  of  France  for  the  popular  cause  of  the  defense  of  eiection  of 
the  Constitution  and  the  dignity  of  the  states.    Aided  by  dissen 
sions  in  the  Federalist  party  between  the  followers  of  Hamilton 
and  those  of  Adams,  the  Republicans  carried  the  presidential  elec 
tion  of  1800  for  Jefferson  and  Burr,  and  secured  a  majority  in  the 
new  Congress.    The  Federalists  had  bent  the  bow  of  authority 
too  far,  and  it  snapped.   They  never  regained  control  of  the  gov 
ernment,  although  they  continued  to  put  a  presidential  candidate 
in  the  field  and  to  poll  a  few  votes  until  the  election  of  1816. 

The  last  acts  of  the  Federalists  before  their  retirement  on  the  270.  The 
fourth  of  March,  1801,  showed  a  somewhat  petty  and  tricky  atte^t^o 

party  spirit.   As  the  Constitution  then  stood,  the  President  and  keep  Jefferson 

out  of  the 
Vice  President  were  not  voted  for  separately,  but  each  elector  presidency 

wrote  down  two  names  on  his  ballot.  The  candidate  getting 
the  highest  number  of  votes  was  President,  and  the  man  with  the 
next  highest,  Vice  President.  In  the  close  election  of  1796  the 
Republican  Jefferson  had  been  elected  Vice  President  because 
not  all  the  Federalist  electors  had  written  the  name  of  Pinckney 
for  second  place  on  the  ticket  with  John  Adams.  In  the  elec 
tion  of  1800,  because  all  the  Republican  electors  did  write  the 
name  of  Aaron  Burr  on  the  ballot  with  Jefferson,  these  two 
candidates  received  the  same  number  of  votes.  Of  course  every 
Republican  elector  meant  to  vote  for  Jefferson  for  President  and 
Burr  for  Vice  President.  But  Burr  was  an  ambitious  politician, 


204 


The  New  Republic 


and  when  he  found  he  had  as  many  votes  as  Jefferson  he  was 
willing  to  contest  the  presidency  with  him.  The  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  with  whom  the  choice  lay  (Constitution,  Art.  II,  sect,  i, 
clause  2),  was  the  Federalist  House  elected  in  the  exciting  year 
1798.  After  a  sharp  contest  it  chose  Jefferson. -  The  next  Con 
gress  passed  the  twelfth  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  which 
was  ratified  by  the  states  in  1804,  providing  for  the  election  of 
President  and  Vice  President  as  a  "  team  "  on  separate  party 
ballots  (see  note,  p.  178). 


The  City  of  Washington  in  1800 

271.  Adams  The  Federalists,  having  lost  control  of  the  executive  and  leg- 
appoints  the  .  ,  .  & 
''midnight  islative  branches  of  the  government  by  the  elections  of  1800, 

Mark's"  xsoi  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  hold  the  judicial  branch  at  least. 
In  its  closing  days  the  Federalist  Congress  created  several  new 
United  States  judgeships,  many  more  than  the  judicial  business 
of  the  country  demanded,  and  the  President  filled  the  offices 
with  stanch  Federalists.  These  new  officers  were  nicknamed 
the  "  midnight  judges,"  because  Adams  was  occupied  until  far 
into  the  evening  of  his  last  day  of  office  (March  3,  1801)  in 
signing  their  commissions. 


Federalists  and  Republicans  205 

Early  the  next  morning,  without  waiting  to  shake  hands  with 
the  new  President,  Adams  left  the  White  House  for  his  home 
in  Massachusetts,  where  he  lived  long  enough  to  see  his  illus 
trious  son,  John  Quincy  Adams,  elected  to  the  presidency  (1824) 
by  the  party  of  this  .same  Jefferson  whom  he  had  so  rudely  re 
fused  to  congratulate. 

The  ungracious  exit  of  the  Federalists  in  1801  and  the  bitter  272.  services 
sectional  opposition  of  the  New  England  group  to  the  Republi-  aiist  states-" 
can  administration  for  the  fifteen  years  following  must  not  ob-  men 
scure  the  great  merits  of  the  party  during  its  years  of  power 
( 1 789-1 80 1 ).  On  the  day  of  Jefferson's  inauguration  the  Colum 
bian  Centinel  of  Boston,  the  leading  Federalist  paper  in  New 
England,  published  a  long  and  true  list  of  the  benefits  which 
that  party  had  bestowed  on  the  nation  :  peace  secured  with  Eng 
land,  France,  and  Spain  ;  credit  restored  abroad  and  the  finances 
set  in  order  at  home ;  a  navy  created,  domestic  manufactures 
encouraged,  and  foreign  trade  stimulated.  It  pointed  with  just 
pride  to  the  constructive  statesmanship  of  Hamilton  and  Gou- 
verneur  Morris ;  the  diplomatic  skill  of  Jay,  Marshall,  and  the 
Pinckneys ;  the  honest,  able,  courageous  administrations  of 
Washington  and  Adams.  The  services  of  these  men  to  the 
country  were  great  and  lasting.  It  would  be  difficult  to  prove 
that  our  government  has  been  better  administered  in  any  sub 
sequent  decade  of  our  history  than  it  was  in  that  first  decade 
of  Federalism. 

THE  JEFFERSONIAN  POLICIES 

The  White  House,  which  John  Adams  left  so  unceremoniously  273.  The 
on  the  morning  of  the  day  Thomas  Jefferson  entered  it,  was  a 
big,  square,  unfinished  building,  more  like  the  quarters  of  a 
cavalry  regiment  than  the  residence  of  the  chief  executive  of 
a  nation.  Thrifty  Abigail  Adams  wrote  to  a  friend  that  a  retinue 
of  thirty  servants  would  be  needed  to  run  the  house  when  it 
was  finished  ;  and  meanwhile  she  dried  the  presidential  washing 
in  the  unplastered  East  Room  during  stormy  weather.  The  city 


206  The  New  Republic 

of  Washington,  to  which  the  seat  of  government  had  been 
moved  from  Philadelphia  in  the  summer  of  iSoo,1  was  itself  as 
crude  and  unfinished  as  the  President's  mansion.  A  couple  of 
executive  buildings  stood  near  the  White  House,  and  more  than 
a  mile  to  the  eastward  the  masons  were  at  work  on  the  wings 
of  the  Capitol.  Instead  of  the  stately  Pennsylvania  Avenue 
which  now  connects  the  Capitol  and  the  White  House,  there 
was  a  miry  road  running  across  a  sluggish  creek.  The  residential 
part  of  the  city  consisted  of  a  few  cheerless  boarding  houses  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  members  of  Congress,  exiled  to  these 
wastes  from  the  gay  city  of  Philadelphia.  "  We  need  nothing 
here,"  wrote  Gouverneur  Morris,  "  but  houses,  men,  women, 
and  other  little  trifles  of  the  kind  to  make  our  city  perfect." 
274.  jeffer-  The  new  President,  with  his  large,  loose  figure,  his  careless 
viewsP°  l  carriage,  his  ill-fitting  and  snuff-stained  apparel,  his  profuse  and 
informal  hospitality,  presented  as  great  a  contrast  to  the  stately 
poise  and  ceremony  of  Washington  and  Adams  as  the  crude 
city  on  the  Potomac  did  to  the  settled  colonial  dignity  of  Phila 
delphia.  Jefferson  hated  every  appearance  of  "  aristocracy." 
The  French  Revolution  had  estranged  him  from  the  manners  of 
Europe  as  well  as  from  its  politics.  His  confidence  was  in  the 
plain  people  of  America.  He  wanted  to  see  them  continue  a 
plain  agricultural  people,  governing  themselves  in  their  local  as 
semblies.  The  national  government  at  Washington  should  con 
fine  itself,  he  thought,  to  managing  our  dealings  with  foreign 
nations,  a  comparatively  small  task  which  could  be  performed 
by  a  few  public  servants.  Army  and  navy  were  to  be  reduced, 
the  public  revenue  was  to  be  applied  to  paying  the  debt  which 
the  wicked  war  scares  of  the  Federalists  had  rolled  up,  and  the 
government  was  no  longer,  as  Jefferson  phrased  it,  to  "waste  the 
labors  of  the  people  under  the  pretense  of  taking  care  of  them." 

1  The  states  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  presented  the  government  a  tract  of 
land  ten  miles  square  on  the  Potomac.  Congress  named  the  tract  the  District 
of  Columbia.  The  city  of  Washington  was  built  on  the  northern  side  of  the  river 
on  the  Maryland  cession,  and  the  land  to  the  south  of  the  Potomac  was  retroceded 
to  Virginia  in  1846. 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON 

From  the  original  portrait  by  Stuart  in  the  Walker  Art  Building, 
Kowdoin  College 


Federalists  and  Republicans  207 

Still  Jefferson  showed  no  desire  to  revolutionize  the  govern-  275.  His 
ment,  as  some  of  the  New  England  Federalists  thought  he  snip 
would.  In  his  inaugural  address,  which  was  couched  in  a  digni 
fied  and  conciliatory  tone,  he  declared  that  Federalists  and 
Republicans  were  one  in  common  devotion  to  their  country. 
He  praised  our  government  as  a  "  successful  experiment,"  and 
himself  built  on  the  foundations  which  the  Federalists  had 
laid.  The  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  expired  with  Adams's  ad 
ministration,  and  when  the  new  Republican  Congress  had 
turned  out  the  "  midnight  judges  "  by  the  repeal  of  the  Judici 
ary  Act,  and  restored  the  five-year  period  for  naturalization, 
there  was  little  to  distinguish  it  from  the  Congresses  of  Wash 
ington's  administration.  The  tariff  was  retained,  and  the  Bank 
was  not  disturbed.  But  strict  economy  was  introduced  in  the 
expenditures  of  the  government  by  the  new  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  Albert  Gallatin  of  Pennsylvania,  a  naturalized  Swiss, 
who  is  rated  second  only  to  Alexander  Hamilton  in  the  admin 
istration  of  the  finances  of  our  country.  Gallatin  introduced 
the  modern  form  of  budget  with  its  specific  appropriations  for 
each  item  of  national  expense.  Army  and  navy  appropriations 
were  more  than  cut  in  two,  and  about  70  per  cent  of  the 
revenue,  or  over  $7,000,000  a  year,  was  devoted  to  paying  off 
the  national  debt. 

However,  a   piece    of    European    diplomacy  led    President  276.  Napo- 
Jefferson,  whose  twin  political  doctrines  were  strict  adherence  pa^te  acquires 

to  the  letter  of  the  Constitution  and  severe  economy  in  the  ex-  Louisiana 

from  Spain, 
penditures  of  the  public  moneys,  himself  to  stretch  the  Con-  1800 

stitution  further  than  any  Federalist  had  ever  done,  and  to 
expend  at  a  stroke  $15,000,000  of  the  national  revenue.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  the  Peace  of  Paris  of  1763,  which 
closed  the  long  struggle  between  France  and  England  for  the 
possession  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Ohio  valleys,  left  the  French 
without  a  foot  of  land  on  the  continent  of  North  America.  The 
territory  east  of  the  Mississippi  belonged  to  England,  that  west 
of  it  to  Spain.  In  the  year  1800  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  the  new 


208  The  New  Republic 

master  of  France,  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  a  colonial 
empire  in  the  New  World,  in  the  valley  of  the  great  river  which 
had  been  opened  over  a  century  before  by  the  heroic  labors 
of  the  French  explorers  Marquette,  Hennepin,  and  La  Salle. 
He  induced  Spain,  by  the  secret  treaty  of  San  Ildefonso,  to 
cede  to  him  an  immense  tract  of  land  in  America,  extending 
north  and  south  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Canadian 
borders,  and  east  and  west  from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  The  whole  province  was  called  "  Louisiana," 
the  name  which  La  Salle  had  given  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  in 
honor  of  Louis  XIV,  when  he  planted  the  cross  at  the  mouth 
of  the  great  river  in  1682. 

277.  impor-  When  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1802  Jefferson  finally  heard 
control  of  of  this  treaty  of  San  Ildefonso,  he  was  much  disturbed  by  the 
forTheuSted  ProsPect  °f  having  the  control  of  the  west  bank  and  the  mouth 
states  of  the  Mississippi  pass  from  the  feeble  administration  of  Spain 

to  the  powerful  and  aggressive  government  of  Napoleon.  The 
settlers  in  the  Northwest  Territory,  in  Kentucky,  and  in  Ten 
nessee  were  completely  isolated  from  the  seaports  of  the  East 
by  the  mountains.  Their  lumber,  wheat,  hogs,  and  tobacco  had 
to  seek  a  market  by  way  of  the  Mississippi,  with  its  tributaries, 
the  Ohio,  the  Cumberland,  and  the  Tennessee  rivers.  Three 
eighths  of  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  in  1800  passed 
through  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It 
was  therefore  absolutely  necessary  to  the  life  of  our  nation  that 
the  important  city  of  New  Orleans,  which  controlled  the  mouth 
of  the  river,  should  not  be  converted  from  a  port  of  deposit  for 
the  commerce  of  the  western  states  and  territories  into  an  armed 
base  of  war  in  the  great  duel  between  France  and  England. 
Much  as  he  disliked  the  latter  country,  Jefferson  wrote  to 
Robert  R.  Livingston,  our  minister  in  Paris,  that  "  every  eye 
in  the  United  States  was  now  turned  to  the  affair  of  Louisi 
ana,"  and  that  the  moment  Napoleon  took  possession  of  New 
Orleans  we  "  must  marry  ourselves  to  the  British  fleet  and 
nation." 


Federalists  and  Republicans  209 

The  President's  worst  fears  were  realized  when,  in  October,  278.  jeffer 
1802,  the  Spanish  government,  probably  at  the  bidding  of 
Napoleon,  to  whom  Louisiana  was  just  about  to  be  handed 
over,  closed  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  by  withdrawing  the  1803 
right  of  unloading  and  reshipping  secured  by  Pinckney's  treaty 
of  1795  (see  p.  199).  Jefferson,  knowing  that  it  would  be  impos 
sible  to  force  Napoleon  to  open  the  river  to  our  trade,  secured 
an  appropriation  of  $2,000,000  from  Congress  for  the  purpose 
of  buying  New  Orleans  and  West  Florida  outright,  and  sent 
James  Monroe  to  Paris  to  aid  Livingston  in  the  negotiation. 
At  first  Napoleon  rejected  any  offer  for  New  Orleans,  but  sud 
denly  changed  his  mind  and  authorized  his  foreign  minister, 
Talleyrand,  to  offer  the  American  commissioners  the  whole 
province  of  Louisiana.  For  reasons  fully  known  only  to  his 
own  capricious  and  arbitrary  will,  he  had  decided  to  abandon 
his  colonial  enterprise  in  the  New  World  and  confine  his  struggle 
with  Great  Britain  to  the  Eastern  Hemisphere.  After  much 
bargaining  he  accepted  Livingston's  offer  of  $15,000,000  for 
Louisiana,  nearly  $3,000,000  of  which  was  to  be  paid  back  to 
our  own  citizens  in  the  West  for  damage  to  their  trade.  The 
terms  were  agreed  to  April  30,  1803. 

The  purchase  of  Louisiana  was  the  most  important  event  of  279.  The 
American  history  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 


It  doubled  the  area  of  the  United  States  and  brought  under  Louisiana 

Purchase 
our  rule  one  of  the  most  valuable  tracts  of  land  in  the  world. 

Fourteen  states,  including  the  latest  addition  to  the  Union, 
Oklahoma  (1908),  have  been  created  wholly  or  in  part  out 
of  the  Louisiana  territory.  The  population  has  grown  from 
50,000  in  1804,  of  whom  half  were  slaves,  to  over  18,000,000 
in  1910.  The  cattle  and  timber  of  Montana,  the  wheat  of 
Minnesota  and  the  Dakotas,  the  corn  of  Kansas,  and  the  sugar 
and  cotton  of  Louisiana  have  been  the  source  of  rapidly  in 
creasing  wealth  to  our  country.  By  the  census  of  1900  the 
value  of  the  farm  property  alone  in  these  fourteen  states  was 
$6,724,855,132,  or  four  hundred  and  fifty  times  what  we  paid 


2io  The  New  Republic 

for  the  whole  territory.  At  the  imposing  exposition  held  in  St. 
Louis,  the  metropolis  of  the  region,  in  1904,  to  celebrate  the 
one-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  purchase,  the  abounding  popu 
lation  and  prosperity  of  the  states  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase 
were  the  admiration  of  millions  of  visitors. 

280.  The  Furthermore,  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  stimulated  the  in- 
ciark8  expe-    terest  of  the  government  in  the  vast  territory  to  the  west  of 

dition,  faQ  Mississippi  River.    Less  than  two  months  after  the  cession 

1804-1806 

of    Louisiana   to  the   United   States,   Jefferson  commissioned 

Captain  Meriwether  Lewis,  his  private  secretary,  to  head  a 
scientific  exploring  party  to  the  Far  Northwest.  Lewis  associated 
with  him  William  Clark,  younger  brother  of  George  Rogers 
Clark  of  Revolutionary  fame.  After  wintering  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Missouri  River,  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition  started  west 
ward  in  the  spring  of  1804  with  a  company  of  forty-five  men. 
They  ascended  the  Missouri  to  its  source,  crossed  the  Rockies, 
and  descended  the  Columbia  River  to  the  sea,  making  impor 
tant  studies,  in  their  two  and  a  half  years'  journey,  of  the  natu 
ral  features  of  the  country  and  the  habits  of  the  Indian  tribes. 
Their  remarkable  expedition  was  an  important  factor  in  our 
claim  to  the  Oregon  country  in  our  dispute  with  England  forty 
years  later. 

281.  The  The  political  consequences  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  were 
constitu-  .  .  i-i  TVT 
tionai  aspect  not  less  important    than   its   geographical    consequences.    No 

isianaPur-     clause  °f  tne  Constitution  of  the  United  States  could  be  found 
chase  giving  the  President  the  right  to  purchase  foreign  territory  by 

a  treaty  which  promised  (as  the  third  article  of  the  Louisiana 
treaty  promised)  that  "  the  inhabitants  of  the  ceded  territory 
should  be  incorporated  into  the  Union  of  the  United  States 
and  admitted  as  soon  as  possible  ...  to  the  enjoyment  of  all 
rights,  advantages,  and  immunities  of  the  United  States."  Jef 
ferson,  who  for  twelve  years  had  been  protesting  almost  daily 
against  the  assumption  by  the  executive  of  powers  not  granted 
by  the  Constitution,  was  much  disturbed  at  finding  himself  fol 
lowing  the  same  path  in  the  purchase  of  Louisiana.  He  at  first 


L.L.PQATE8ENG.  CO.,   N.Y. 


The  Louisiana  Purchase  Territory  with  States 
subsequently  made  from  it 


Route  of  Lewis  and  Clark,  1808-1806 

«•**«•  + Western  Boundary  agreed  on  by  Treaty  with  Spain,  1810 


Federalists  and  Republicans  211 

insisted  on  having  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  passed, 
giving  the  people's  sanction  to  the  purchase.  But  his  friends 
in  Congress  persuaded  him  that  it  was  both  unnecessary  and 
unwise,  —  unnecessary  because  the  Constitution  gives  the  Presi 
dent  and  Senate  the  right  to  conclude  treaties,  and  unwise 
because  during  the  long  delay  necessary  to  secure  such  an  amend 
ment  Napoleon  might  again  change  his  mind  and  deprive  us  of 
our  fine  bargain ;  or  because  Spain,  hearing  that  Napoleon  had 
broken  the  treaty  of  San  Ildefonso  by  the  sale  of  the  province 
to  another  power,  might  enter  her  protest  at  Washington.  Jef 
ferson  acquiesced  in  the  judgment  of  his  friends,  and  said  noth 
ing  about  the  necessity  for  an  amendment  in  his  message  to  the 
new  Congress  which  assembled  in  December,  iSc^.1 

That  the  vast  province  of  Louisiana  would  ever  be  incorpo-  282.  jeffer- 
rated  into  the  United  States  seemed  questionable  to  Jefferson,  strengthens 

He  wrote  in  1804,  "Whether  we  remain  one  confederacy  or  the  central 

authority 
fall  into  Atlantic  and  Mississippi  confederacies  I  believe  not 

very  important  to  the  happiness  of  either  part."  Meanwhile, 
however,  by  bringing  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Congress  a  new 
territory  which  doubled  the  size  of  the  United  States,  Jefferson 
enormously  increased  the  authority  of  the  central  government, 
—  an  authority  which  in  theory  he  combated. 

Aside  from  the  opposition  of  the  New  England  Federalists,  283.  jeffer- 
who  might  be  counted  upon  to  oppose  any  policy  of  the  Jeffer-  height 
son  administration,  the  country  enthusiastically  indorsed  the  pur-  popularity, 
chase  of  Louisiana.    President  Jefferson  was  at  the  height  of  his 
popularity.     In  1804  he  was  reflected  by  162  electoral  votes 
to  14  for  his  Federalist  opponent,  C.  C.  Pinckney.    At  the  same 
time  with  the  election  returns  came  the  news  of  the  success  of 

1  Congress  established  the  extreme  southern  part  of  the  Louisiana  province 
as  the  territory  of  Orleans,  and  provided  for  its  administration  by  a  governor, 
a  secretary,  and  judges  appointed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States.  For 
over  a  year  there  was  no  elected  assembly  in  Orleans ;  there  was  not  even  the 
ancient  civil  right  of  trial  by  jury.  The  inhabitants  of  the  territory  were  made 
subjects,  not  citizens,  of  the  United  States,  and  it  was  not  until  eight  years  later 
that  they  were  admitted  (as  the  state  of  Louisiana,  1812)  to  the  "  rights,  advan 
tages,  and  immunities  "  promised  them  in  the  treaty  of  1803. 


212 


The  New  Republic 


284.  The 
conspiracy  of 
Aaron  Burr, 
1805-1807 


285.  The 
trials  of  Jef 
ferson's 
second  ad 
ministration, 
1805-1809 


the  small  American  fleet  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  under  the 
brave  commanders  Preble,  Bainbridge,  and  Decatur,  in  the  war 
against  the  insolent  pasha  of  Tripoli,  who  was  attacking  our  com 
merce  and  levying  blackmail  on  our  government.  Our  diplomacy 
and  arms  successful  abroad  ;  our  territory  doubled  at  home  ;  our 
debt  reduced,  in  spite  of  the  purchase  of  Louisiana ;  our  people 
united,  save  for  a  few  malcontents  in  New  England  and  Dela 
ware, —  such  was  the  record  of  the  years  1801-1805. 

But  Jefferson's  second  term  was  filled  with  disappointment 
and  chagrin.  The  country  was  distressed  by  the  conspiracy  of 
Aaron  Burr.  That  brilliant  but  unprincipled  politician,  while 
still  Vice  President,  had  offered  himself  as  a  candidate  for  gov 
ernor  of  New  York,  and  being  defeated  through  the  efforts  of 
Alexander  Hamilton,  had  challenged  Hamilton  to  a  duel  and 
killed  him  at  the  first  shot  (July  1 1,  1804).  Made  a  political  and 
social  outcast  by  this  act,  Burr  conceived  a  desperate  plan  for 
retrieving  his  fortunes  and  reputation.  Just  what  he  intended 
to  do  is  uncertain,  —  whether  to  establish  an  independent  state 
in  the  Mississippi  valley,  or  to  seize  the  city  of  New  Orleans 
and  carve  an  "  empire  for  the  Burr  dynasty  "  out  of  Spanish 
territory  to  the  southwest  of  the  United  States.  At  any  rate,  he 
threw  the  whole  western  country  into  commotion  for  two  years, 
until  he  was  abandoned  and  betrayed  by  his  treacherous  accom 
plice,  General  James  "Wilkinson.  In  1807  Burr  was  seized  in 
Spanish  Florida  and  brought  to  Richmond  for  trial.  John  Mar 
shall,  the  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  a  Federalist  ap 
pointed  by  President  Adams,  presided  over  the  trial.  Jefferson 
was  extremely  anxious  to  have  Burr  convicted ;  but  the  jury, 
under  Marshall's  charge,  found  no  "  overt  act  of  treason  "  to 
justify  a  verdict  of  "  guilty,"  and  Burr  was  discharged,  to  spend 
the  rest  of  his  long  life  in  obscurity  and  misery. 

But  the  Burr  trial  was  of  small  account  among  Jefferson's 
troubles,  when  compared  with  the  failure  of  his  "  peace  policy." 
European  diplomacy  favored  the  reduction  of  our  army  and 
navy  in  Jefferson's  first  term;  but  in  his  second  term  the 


Federalists  and  Republicans  2  1  3 

fortunes  of  European  war  broke  down  this  peace  policy,  and, 
in  spite  of  his  desperate  efforts  to  meet  French  and  English 
violence  by  diplomacy,  entreaties,  proclamations,  and  embargoes, 
the  war  approached,  which  was  to  find  us  shockingly  unprepared 
in  men  and  ships  and  discipline. 

THE  WAR  OF  1812 

The  unholy  ambition  of  one  man  kept  the  civilized  world  in  286.  Napo- 
a  turmoil  during  the  first  fifteen  years  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 


tury,  and  stirred  war  from  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie  to   the  tyrant  of 

Europe, 
steppes  of  Russia.   Napoleon  Bonaparte,  made  master  of  France  1805-1815 

by  his  sword  at  the  age  of  thirty  (1799),  found  France  too 
small  a  theater  for  his  genius,  and  aimed  at  nothing  less  than 
the  domination  of  the  continent  of  Europe  and  the  destruc 
tion  of  the  British  colonial  empire.  The  latter  object  was  frus 
trated  when  Admiral  Nelson  shattered  the  combined  fleets  of 
France  and  Spain  off  Cape  Trafalgar,  October  21,  1805.  But 
a  few  weeks  later,  by  his  victory  over  the  armies  of  Russia 
and  Austria  in  the  tremendous  battle  of  Austerlitz  (the  "  battle 
of  the  three  emperors  "),  Napoleon  began  to  realize  his  am 
bition  of  dominating  the  continent.  Henceforth  the  British  were 
masters  of  the  ocean,  but  for  ten  years  Napoleon  was  master 
of  the  land. 

Failing  to  destroy  Great  Britain's  fleet,  Napoleon  sought  to  287.  The 
kill  her  commerce.    By  decrees  issued  from  Berlin  and  Milan  in 


1806  and  1807  he  declared  the  continent  closed  to  British  goods,  Napoleon  and 

Great  Britain 
and  ordered  the  seizure  of  any  vessel  that  had  touched  at  a 

British  port.  Great  Britain  replied  by  Orders  in  Council,  for 
bidding  neutral  vessels  to  trade  with  any  countries  under  Napo 
leon's  control  (which  meant  all  of  Europe  but  Scandinavia  and 
Turkey),  unless  such  vessels  had  touched  at  a  British  port.  These 
decrees  and  orders  meant  the  utter  ruin  of  neutral  trade,  for  the 
English  seized  all  merchant  vessels  that  did  not  touch  at  British 
ports,  and  the  French  seized  all  that  did. 


214  The  New  Republic 

288.  The  It  was  the  American  trade  that  suffered  especially.  During 
the  nine  years'  war  between  France  and  England  (1793-1802) 
the  United  States  had  built  up  an  immense  volume  of  shipping. 
Her  stanch,  swift  vessels,  manned  by  alert  tars,  were  the 
favorite  carriers  of  the  merchandise  of  South  America,  the 
Indies,  and  the  Far  East  to  all  the  ports  of  Europe.  Our  own 
exports  too  —  the  fish  and  lumber  of  New  England,  the  cotton 
and  rice  of  the  South,  the  wheat  and  live  stock  of  the  trans- 
Allegheny  country — had  increased  threefold  (from  $20,000,000 
to  $60,000,000)  since  the  inauguration  of  Washington.  Our 
shipments  of  cotton  alone,  thanks  to  the  invention  in  1793  of 
the  cotton  "  gin  "  (engine)  for  separating  the  seed,  grew  from 
200,000  pounds  in  1791  to  over  50,000,000  pounds  in  1805. 
In  the  latter  year  some  70,000  tons  were  added  to  our  merchant 
marine,  requiring  the  addition  of  4200  seamen.  Sailors'  wages 
rose  from  $8  to  $24  a  month.  Himdreds  of  foreigners  became 
naturalized  in  order  to  enjoy  the  huge  profits  of  American  ship 
owners.  Some  idea  of  the  volume  of  our  foreign  trade  in  pro 
portion  to  the  size  and  wealth  of  our  country  at  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  as  compared  with  that  at  the  close  of 
the  century,  can  be  realized  from  the  following  figures  :  in  1900, 
when  our  population  was  almost  80,000,000  and  our  wealth 
$100,000,000,000,  less  than  10  per  cent  of  our  foreign  trade 
(only  816,000  tons)  was  carried  in  American  ships  ;  in  1810  our 
population  was  less  than  8,000,000  and  our  estimated  wealth 
$2,000,000,000,  but  91  per  cent  of  our  foreign  trade  (980,000 
tons)  was  carried  in  our  own  vessels.1 

1  The  decay  of  our  merchant  marine  since  the  Civil  War  has  been  deplor 
able.  Most  of  our  merchant  ships  were  captured  by  Confederate  cruisers  or 
turned  into  war  vessels  during  the  war  ;  and  our  merchant  marine  was  not  rebuilt 
when  peace  came,  because  the  high  duties  on  iron,  steel,  copper,  lumber,  and 
cordage  made  shipbuilding  unprofitable.  Senator  Frye  of  Maine  in  1891  pro 
posed  a  national  subsidy  ("  help  ")  for  American  vessels  carrying  our  mail,  but 
it  was  not  enough  to  encourage  shipbuilding.  Again,  ten  years  later  (1901), 
Senator  Frye  labored  to  get  Congress  to  appropriate  $9,000,000  a  year  for  thirty 
years  for  the  subsidizing  of  American  shipping,  but  the  agricultural  and  manu 
facturing  interests  defeated  his  bill. 


Federalists  and  Republicans 


21$ 


It  was  this  immense  foreign  trade,  the  chief  source  of  our  289.  Great 
country's  wealth,  that  was  threatened  with  ruin  by  Napoleon's 
decrees  and  the  British  Orders  in  Council.   Jefferson's  reduction 


of  the  navy  far  below  the  point  necessary  to  protect  American  our  merchant 

commerce  left  diplomacy  as  his  only  weapon.    He  sent  William 

Pinckney  to  London  to  cooperate  there  with  our  minister,  James 

Monroe,  in  making  a  treaty  to  replace  the  Jay  Treaty,  which 

expired  in  1806.    But  the  British  court  showed  its  contempt  for 

our  naval  weakness  by  negotiating  with  Monroe  a  treaty  so  in 

sulting  to  our  commercial  independence  that  Jefferson  would 

not  even  send  it  to  the 

Senate  for  consideration. 

Furthermore,  many  Brit 

ish  frigates  cruised  along 

our    shores    from    New 

England     to      Georgia, 

stopping    our    ships    at 

will,  boarding  them,  and 

taking  off  scores  of  sail 

ors  on  the  ground  that 

they  were    English    de 

serters.   To  be  sure,  the 

provocation  of  England 

was   great.    At    a   time 

when  she  needed  every 

man  and  gun  in  her  desperate  struggle  with  Napoleon,  British 

seamen  were  leaving  her  ships  by  hundreds  to  take  advantage 

of  the  high  wages,  good  food,  and  humane  treatment  which 

they  found  aboard  the  American  vessels.    If  the  British  lieu 

tenant  conducted  his  examination  of  an  American  crew  in  a 

summary  fashion,  and  "  impressed  "  a  good  many  real  Ameri 

cans  among  the  suspected  deserters  to  serve  the  guns  of  the 

British  frigates,  he  thought  he  was   only  erring  on  the  right 

side.    After  all,  Englishmen  and  Americans  were  not  so  easy 

to  tell  apart. 


Impressing  American  Seamen 


2  1  6 


The  New  Republic 


290.  The 
££1^x807 


291.  con- 


ber  22,  1807 


292.  presi- 

dent  Madi 
son's 


1809-1810 


The  climax  was  reached  when  the  British  ship  Leopard  opened 
fire  on  tne  American  frigate  Chesapeake  off  the  Virginia  coast, 
June  22,  1807,  because  the  American  refused  to  stop  to  be 
searched  for  deserters.  Three  of  the  Chesapeake^  men  were 
killed  and  eighteen  wounded  before  she  surrendered.  It  was  an 
act  of  war.  The  country  was  stirred  as  it  had  not  been  since 
the  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington.  Resolutions  poured  in 
upon  the  President  pledging  the  signers  to  support  the  most 
rigorous  measures  of  resistance. 

But  Jefferson  had  no  more  rigorous  measures  of  resistance 
to  propose,  in  the  absence  of  a  navy,  than  an  embargo  on  foreign 
commerce-  By  an  act  of  Congress  of  December  22,  1807,  all 
ships  were  forbidden  to  leave  our  harbors  for  foreign  ports. 
The  double  purpose  of  the  embargo  was  to  starve  Europe  into 
showing  a  proper  respect  for  our  commerce  and  to  prevent  our 
ships  from  capture.  The  latter  object  the  embargo  certainly 
accomplished,  for  if  the  ships  did  not  sail,  they  could  hardly 
be  taken.  But  the  remedy  was  worse  than  the  disease.  The 
merchants  of  New  England  preferred  risking  the  loss  of  a  few 
men  and  vessels  to  seeing  their  ships  tied  idly  to  the  wharves 
and  their  merchandise  spoiling  in  warehouses.  They  even  ac 
cused  Jefferson  of  being  willing  to  ruin  their  shipping  in  order  to 
be  avenged  on  the  Federalists  and  to  further  his  pet  industry  of 
agriculture.  A  perfect  storm  of  protest  arose  from  the  commer 
cial  classes  of  the  country.  It  was  evident  that  the  continuance 
of  the  embargo  would  mean  the  overthrow  of  the  Republican 
party,  if  not  civil  war  ;  and  the  hated  act,  which  cost  New  Eng 
land  merchants  alone  a  loss  of  $8,000,000  in  fifteen  months,  was 
repealed  March  i,  1809,  and  a  Nonintercourse  Act  with  Great 
Britain  and  France  passed  in  its  stead.  Three  days  later  Jefferson 
turned  over  the  government  to  his  successor,  James  Madison. 

Madison  had  rendered  the  country  magnificent  services  a 
quarter  of  a  century  earlier  in  the  convention  which  framed  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  but  he  seemed  to  have  lost  all 
power  of  initiative.  He  neither  prepared  for  war  nor  developed 


Federalists  and  Republicans  217 

any  effective  policy  of  peace.  He  was  singularly  lacking  in  dip 
lomatic  judgment,  allowing  himself,  in  his  anxiety  for  peace,  to 
believe  too  readily  the  word  of  any  one  who  brought  a  welcome 
report.  When  the  new  British  minister,  Erskine,  announced  in 
1809  that  his  country  would  withdraw  the  Orders  in  Council, 
Madison  hastily  reopened  commerce  with  England,  without 
waiting  to  see  whether  the  British  ministry  would  sanction 
Erskine's  promise  or  not.  To  Madison's  chagrin  the  promise 
was  disavowed  and  the  minister  recalled.  The  next  move  of 
the  administration  was  an  attempt  to  bribe  England  and  France 
to  bid  against  each  other  for  our  trade.  Congress  repealed  the 
Nonintercourse  Act  in  1810  and  substituted  for  it  Macon's 
bill,  which  provided  that  as  soon  as  either  France  or  England 
withdrew  its  decrees  against  our  shipping,  the  Nonintercourse 
Act  should  be  revived  against  the  other  country. 

This  was  too  good  a  chance  for  the  wily  Napoleon  to  let  293.  Napo- 
slip.  He  announced  (August  5,  1810)  that  the  Berlin  and  Milan 
Decrees  were  repealed,  and  called  upon  the  American  President 
to  redeem  his  promise  by  prohibiting  intercourse  with  Great 
Britain.  Again  Madison  jumped  at  the  chance  of  bringing  Great 
Britain  to  terms  by  diplomacy.  In  spite  of  the  British  ministry's 
warning  that  Napoleon  would  not  keep  his  word  (a  judgment 
amply  proved  by  the  facts),  Madison  issued  a  proclamation 
reviving  the  Nonintercourse  Act  against  Great  Britain  if  she 
should  not  have  repealed  her  Orders  in  Council  before  Feb 
ruary  2,  181 1.  The  day  passed  without  any  word  from  the  Brit 
ish  ministry,  and  again  Congress  forbade  all  trade  with  Great 
Britain  and  her  colonies. 

The  year  1811   brought  other  fuel  to  feed  the  fires  of  anti-  294.  New 
British   sentiment.    In   May  our  frigate  President,   chasing   a  by0Great10n 
British  cruiser  which  had  impressed  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts,  Bntain>  l8" 
was  fired  upon  by  the  British  sloop  of  war  Little  Belt,  which 
was  forced  by  the  American  ship  to  strike  her  colors.    The 
exploit  was  hailed  as  a  fitting  revenge  for  the  Chesapeake  out 
rage  four  years  earlier.   In  November,  William  Henry  Harrison, 


218  The  New  Republic 

governor  of  the  Northwest,  defeated  the  Indians  under  the 
great  chief  Tecumseh  at  Tippecanoe  Creek  in  the  Indiana 
territory,  and  wrote  home,  "  The  Indians  had  an  ample  supply 
of  the  best  British  glazed  powder,  and  some  of  their  guns  had 
been  sent  them  so  short  a  time  before  the  action  that  they 
were  not  yet  divested  of  the  list  coverings  in  which  they  are 
imported."  The  suspicions  of  our  government,  therefore,  that 
the  British  had  been  inciting  the  Indians  on  our  northwestern 
frontier  since  St.  Glair's  disastrous  defeat  twenty  years  before, 
seemed  to  be  confirmed. 

295.  con-  The  new  Congress  which  met  in  the  early  winter  of  1811 

Henry  clay's    contained  a  group  of  energetic  men,  the  "  war  hawks  "  as  John 
~  Ran^olph  called  them,  who  were  determined  that  the  independ- 


Great  Britain,  ence  and  dignity  of  the  United  States  should  be  respected. 
They  were  of  the  new  generation  that  had  grown  up  since  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  their  confidence  in  the  present  great 
ness  and  future  promise  of  the  United  States  was  unbounded. 
They  demanded  that  the  impotent  diplomacy  which  had  humili 
ated  our  government  since  the  end  of  the  first  administration  of 
Jefferson  —  the  so-called  "  peaceful  war"  of  embargo  and  non- 
intercourse  —  should  be  abandoned.  The  leader  of  the  "  war 
hawks  "  was  Henry  Clay,  a  Virginian  born,  who  had  moved  out 
to  the  new  state  of  Kentucky  as  a  young  law  student,  and  had 
rapidly  raised  himself,  by  his  great  gifts  of  intellect  and  oratory, 
to  be  the  first  citizen  of  the  state.  Clay  was  elected  Speaker  of 
the  House  in  the  new  Congress,  and  as  he  made  up  his  com 
mittees  it  became  evident  that  the  war  party  was  to  direct  the 
legislative  policy  of  the  session.  "  The  period  has  arrived,"  re 
ported  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  "  when  it  is  the  sacred 
duty  of  Congress  to  call  upon  the  patriotism  and  resources  of 
the  country."  Cheves  of  South  Carolina  called  for  an  appro 
priation  of  more  than  half  the  income  of  the  government  for 
the  building  of  thirty-two  warships,  and  lost  his  motion  by  only 
three  votes  out  of  a  House  of  141  members.  Clay  descended 
from  the  chair  and  urged  the  war  in  such  strains  of  oratory  as 


Federalists  and  Republicans  219 

had  not  been  heard  in  Congress  for  twenty  years.  President 
Madison  was  swept  off  his  feet  by  the  war  current.  His 
message  of  June  i,  1812,  reviewed  the  outrages  of  the  British 
in  stopping  our  ships,  seizing  our  seamen,  inciting  the  Indians 
against  our  borders,  blockading  our  ports,  and  refusing  to  repeal 
the  obnoxious  Orders  in  Council.  On  June  18  Congress,  by  a 
vote  of  almost  two  to  one,  declared  war  on  Great  Britain. 

The  War  of  1812  was  the  work  of  Henry  Clay.    He  mar-  296.  Henry 
shaled  the  war  party  in  Congress,  and  solidified  that  war  senti-  sponsibiiity 

ment  in  the  South  and  West  which  made  Madison  believe  that  f°r  the  War 

of  1812 

the  success  of  the  Republicans  and  his  own  reelection  in  the 
autumn  of  1812  depended  on  the  substitution  of  arms  for 
diplomacy.  Clay  held  before  the  farmers  of  the  Mississippi  and 
Ohio  valleys  the  vision  of  an  easy  conquest  of  Canada,  and 
killed  in  the  House  the  proposal  of  the  moderates  to  make  one 
more  effort  for  peace  by  the  dispatch  of  James  Bayard  of 
Delaware  as  special  envoy  to  the  court  of  Great  Britain.  Had 
Bayard  gone,  the  war  would  probably  have  been  averted ;  for 
just  at  the  moment  when  Madison  signed  the  declaration  of 
war,  Great  Britain,  sincerely  anxious  to  preserve  peace  with 
the  United  States,  repealed  the  offensive  Orders  in  Council. 
But  there  was  no  cable  to  bring  the  instantaneous  news  of  the 
British  ministry's  surrender,  so  the  unfortunate  war  between 
the  sister  nations  of  the  English  tongue  began  just  when  Napo 
leon  Bonaparte  led  his  army  of  half  a  million  men  across  the 
Russian  frontier,  hoping  to  crush  the  last  great  power  of  the 
European  continent  that  dared  to  resist  his  despotic  will. 

The  United  States  was  woefully  unprepared  for  war.    Our  297.  our 
regular  army  numbered  less  than  7000  soldiers,  many  of  them  { 
raw  recruits  under  untrained  commanders.    Our  navy  consisted  frontier 
of  15  ships  to  England's  1000.   The  New  England  States  pro 
tested  against  "Mr.  Madison's  war"  (which  they  would  better 
have  called  "  Mr.  Clay's  war"),  and  Vermont  and  Connecticut 
refused  point-blank  to  furnish  a  man  of  their  militia  to  invade 
Canada.   The  year  1812  saw  our  commander  at  Detroit,  W7illiam 


220 


The  New  Republic 


298.  Vic- 
Perry  and 


1813-1814 


299.  The 
recapture  of 
Detroit,  1813 


Hull,  court-martialed  and  sentenced  to  death  for  the  timid  aban 
donment  of  his  post,  and  our  generals  at  the  other  end  of  Lake 
Erie  fighting  duels  over  the  mutual  charge  of  cowardice  instead 
of  advancing  together  against  the  enemy. 

The  conquest  of  Canada,  which  Clay  had  boasted  could  be  ac- 
complished  by  the  militia  of  Kentucky  alone,  showed  little  pros- 
Pect  of  fulfillment  in  the  campaign  of  1812-1813.  But  for  the 
victory  of  Oliver  H.  Perry's  little  fleet  on  Lake  Erie  (Septem 
ber  10,  1813)  and  Thomas  MacDonough's  deliverance  of  Lake 
Champlain  (September  n,  1814),  we  could  hardly  have  been 


The  War  of  1812  on  the  Canadian  Border 

saved  from  a  British  invasion  from  Canada,  which  would  have 
cost  us  the  Northwest  Territory  and  the  valley  of  the  Hudson. 
Cheered  by  Perry's  famous  dispatch  from  Lake  Erie,  "We 
have  met  the  enemy  and  they  are  ours,"  William  Henry  Harri 
son,  who  had  succeeded  Hull,  was  able  to  recapture  Detroit 
and  drive  the  British  across  the  river,  inflicting  a  severe  defeat 
on  them  in  Canadian  territory  (October  5,  1813).  This  was  the 
nearest  we  came  to  a  "  conquest  of  Canada " ;  for  at  the 
eastern  end  of  Lake  Erie  our  last  attempt  at  invasion,  under 
General  Jacob  Brown,  resulted  only  in  the  drawn  battle  of 
Lundy's  Lane  (July  25,  1814). 


Federalists  and  Republicans  221 

In  August,  1814,  a  British  force  of  less  than  5000  men  sailed  300.  The 
up  the  Potomac  and  raided  the  city  of  Washington,  after  put-  Washington, 
ting  to  disgraceful  flight  the  7500  raw  militia  troops  hastily  August,  1814 
gathered  at  Bladensburg  to  defend  the  national  capital.    The 
British  burned  the  White  House,  the  Capitol,  and  some  depart 
ment  buildings,  and  inflicted  about  $1,500,000  worth  of  wanton 
damage  on  the  property  of  the  city.    They  then  departed  for 
Baltimore,  where  a  similar  raid  was  frustrated  by  the  alertness  of 
the  Maryland  militia  and  the  spirited  defense  of  Fort  McHenry 
before  the  city  (September  12,  1814).    It  was  the  sight  of  our 
flag  still  waving  on  the  ramparts  of  Fort  McHenry,  after  a 
night's   bombardment,    that   inspired    Francis    Key's   patriotic 
song,  "The  Star-Spangled  Banner." 

In  sharp  contrast  with  our  disasters  on  land,  the  war  on  the  301.  The 

...  .    f     .     .          r  .  .    ,      £  war  on  the 

ocean,   despite   the  great  inferiority  of  our  navy  in  point  or  sea 

numbers,  was  a  series  of  surprising  triumphs  for  the  American 
ships.  The  exploits  of  our  frigates  President,  United  States,  and 
Constitution  ("  Old  Ironsides  ")  kept  the  country  in  a  fever  of 
rejoicing.  On  all  the  lines  of  world  commerce  —  in  the  Atlantic, 
the  Pacific,  and  the  Indian  oceans,  off  the  coast  of  New  Eng 
land,  among  the  Indies,  in  the  English  waters,  and  beyond  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  —  the  privateers  and  merchantmen  of  both 
countries  played  the  game  of  hide  and  seek.  In  the  first  seven 
months  of  the  war  over  500  British  merchantmen  were  taken 
by  the  swift  Yankee  privateers,  and  before  the  war  was  over 
some  2000  prizes  were  captured.  The  British  had  boasted  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war  that  they  would  not  let  an  American 
craft  cross  from  New  York  to  Staten  Island,  but  before  the  war 
was  over  they  were  themselves  paying  1 5  per  cent  insurance  on 
vessels  crossing  the  English  Channel.  However,  the  Americans 
were  the  worst  sufferers  by  the  war,  their  exports  falling  from 
$110,000,000  in  1807  to  $7,000,000  in  1814;  while  the 
retreat  of  Napoleon  from  Moscow  in  1812  and  his  overwhelm 
ing  defeat  in  the  three  days'  battle  of  Leipzig  the  next  year 
again  opened  the  continent  of  Europe  to  British  trade. 


222  The  New  Republic 

302.  The  With  the  cessation  of  the  long  and  severe  commercial  war 
Ghent,  °De-      between  Napoleon  and  Great  Britain,  the  causes  of  the  war 
cember  24,       between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  —  impressments, 

right  of  search,  blockades,  embargoes,  nonintercourse  acts  — 
were  all  removed.  Peace  was  signed  by  the  American  and 
British  commissioners,  at  the  city  of  Ghent  in  the  Netherlands, 
on  Christmas  Eve,  1814.  The  peace  restored  the  conditions 
before  the  war,  and  referred  to  commissioners  the  settlement 
of  boundary  disputes  between  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

303.  Andrew        Before  the  news  of  the  treaty  of  Ghent  reached  New  York, 
victory*  at        however  (February  n,  1815),  two  events  of  importance  took 


place  in  America.    The  British,  failing  in  their  attack  on  Balti- 
l8is  more,  had  sailed  for  the  West  Indies  and  there  joined  several 

thousand  veteran  troops  under  General  Pakenham,  just  freed 
from  service  against  Napoleon's  armies  in  the  Spanish  peninsula. 
Their  purpose  was  to  seize  New  Orleans,  paralyze  the  trade  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  perhaps  hold  Louisiana  for  exchange 
at  the  close  of  the  war  for  territory  in  the  Northwest.  But  Andrew 
Jackson,  a  Tennessee  frontiersman  and  Indian  fighter  of  Scotch- 
Irish  stock,  who  was  in  command  of  our  small  army  in  the 
Mississippi  territory,  was  a  man  of  different  caliber  from  the 
generals  on  the  northern  frontier.  Pressing  every  man  and  mule 
in  the  city  of  New  Orleans  into  service,  he  constructed  a  hasty 
but  effective  line  of  fortifications  below  the  city,  and  when  the 
British  veterans  attacked  with  confidence,  he  drove  them  back 
with  terrible  slaughter,  laying  2000  of  their  number  on  the  field 
in  a  battle  of  twenty  minutes'  duration  (January  8,  1815).  Jack 
son,  henceforth  the  "  hero  of  New  Orleans,"  was  rewarded  in 
the  following  years  by  the  command  against  the  Indians  of  Florida 
(1817),  the  governorship  of  the  Florida  territory  (1821),  a  seat 
in  the  United  States  Senate  (1823),  and  the  presidency  of  the 
United  States  (1828).  If  the  Atlantic  cable  or  the  swift  modern 
steamship  had  existed  in  1814,  it  would  have  brought  the  news 
of  the  treaty  of  peace  in  time  to  turn  Pakenham's  expedition 
back  from  the  Mississippi,  to  prevent  one  of  the  bloodiest  battles 


Federalists  and  Republicans  223 

ever  fought  on  American  soil,  and  perhaps  to  keep  from  the  pages 
of  American  history  the  record  of  the  administration  of  the  most 
masterful  of  our  Presidents  between  Washington  and  Lincoln. 

While  Jackson  was  bringing  the  war  to  a  victorious  close  for  304.  opposi- 
the  American  side  in  the  far  South,  the  discontent  of  the  New  Engiand^to^ 
England  States  with  "  Mr.  Madison's  war  "  was  ripening  into  the  war 
serious  opposition  to  the  administration.  Every  state  north  of 
Maryland  with  a  seacoast  had  voted  against  Madison  (that  is, 
against  the  war)  in  the  election  of  1812  ;  and  had  not  the  west 
ern  counties  of  Pennsylvania  been  strong  enough  to  carry  the 
twenty-five  electoral  -votes  of  that  state  to  Madison's  column, 
his  rival,  De  Witt  Clinton  (fusion  candidate  of  the  Federalists  and 
the  "  peace  Republicans  "),  would  have  been  elected.  The  sec 
tional  character  of  the  war  is  strikingly  shown  by  the  fact  that 
of  the  $11,000,000  loan  authorized  by  Congress  in  1812,  New 
England,  which  was  the  richest  section  of  the  country,  sub 
scribed  for  less  than  $1,000,000.  There  were  even  those  in 
New  England  who  let  their  disgust  with  the  policy  of  the  admin 
istration  carry  them  into  treason,  and  recouped  the  losses  that 
Madison  and  Clay  brought  to  their  commerce,  by  selling  beef 
to  the  British  army  in  Canada. 

Ever  since  the  defeat  of  the  Federalist  party  in  1800  and  the  305.  The 
.        ,  ,  r  .  •      •    i       i      T   /v  •  MIT      Hartford  Con- 

adoption  of  many  of  its  principles  by  Jefferson,  an  irreconcilable  venti0n,  De- 


branch  of  the  party  in  New  England  had  maintained  its  bitter  ^g^ber  I5> 
opposition  to  the  Jeffersonian  administrations,  to  the  predomi 
nance  of  the  agricultural  interests,  and  to  the  perpetuation  of  the 
so-called  "  Virginia  dynasty  "  in  our  government.  The  declara 
tion  of  the  war  with  England  by  the  votes  of  the  Southern  and 
Western  states  was  to  these  Federalist  representatives  of  the  New 
England  commercial  classes  the  climax  of  a  long  list  of  injuries. 
"  We  are  in  no  better  relation  to  the  Southern  states,"  cried  one 
of  these  extreme  Federalists,  "  than  a  conquered  people."  By 
the  end  of  1813  about  250  vessels  were  lying  idle  at  the  docks 
of  Boston  alone.  Petitions  began  to  come  in  to  the  Massachu 
setts  legislature  from  many  towns,  praying  the  state  to  take 


224  The  New  Republic 

steps  toward  getting  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
amended  in  such  a  way  as  to  "  secure  them  from  further  evils." 
At  the  suggestion  of  Massachusetts  the  five  New  England 
States  sent  delegates  to  meet  in  a  convention  at  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  December  15,  1814.  These  delegates,  twenty-six 
in  number,  represented  the  remnant  of  the  Federalist  party. 
They  denounced  the  "  ruinous  war  "  and  proposed  a  number  of 
amendments  to  the  Constitution,  designed  to  lessen  the  power 
of  the  slaveholding  agricultural  South,  to  secure  the  interests 
of  commerce,  to  prevent  the  hasty  admission  of  new  Western 
states,  and  to  check  the  succession  of  Virginia  Presidents.  After 
a  month's  session  they  adjourned  to  the  following  June,  and 
their  messengers  carried  their  demands  to  Washington. 

306.  The  The  messengers  arrived  only  to  find  themselves  in  the  midst 

downfall  of          .  ....  .  T     ,          ,  , , 

the  Federalist  of  general  rejoicing  over  the  news  of  Jackson's  victory  at  New 

party,  1816  Orleans  and  the  tidings  of  the  peace  from  Ghent,  which  reached 
Washington  on  the  same  day.  The  triumph  of  the  Republicans 
was  complete,  and  the  crestfallen  Hartford  envoys  returned  to 
New  England  bearing  the  doom  of  the  Federalist  party.  In  the 
presidential  election  of  the  following  year  (1816)  the  Federalists 
for  the  last  time  put  a  candidate  into  the  field,  Rufus  King  of 
New  York.  But  King  got  only  34  electoral  votes  to  182  for 
his  Republican  rival,  James  Monroe,  Madison's  Secretary  of 
State,  who  continued  for  another  eight  years  the  "  dynasty  "  of 
Virginia  Republicans  inaugurated  by  Thomas  Jefferson  in  1801. 


REFERENCES 

Launching  the  Government :  J.  B.  MACMASTER,  History  of  the  People 
of  the  United  States,  Vol.  I,  chap,  vi ;  HENRY  ADAMS,  History  of  the 
United  States  of  America  during  the  Administrations  of  Jefferson  and 
Madison,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  i-vi;  J.  S.  BASSETT,  The  Federalist  System 
(American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  i-xiii;  F.  A.  WALKER,  The  Making 
of  the  Nation,  chaps,  v-vii ;  DAVIS  R.  DEWEY,  Financial  History  of  the 
United  States,  chaps,  iii,  iv  ;  JUSTIN  WiNSOR,  Narrative  and  Critical  His 
tory  of  America,  Vol.  VII,  chap,  vi;  biographies  of  George  Washington 


Federalists  and  Republicans  225 

by  PAUL  LEICESTER  FORD,  WOODROW  WILSON,  and  HENRY  CABOT 
LODGE;  biographies  of  Alexander  Hamilton  by  WILLIAM  G.  SUMNER, 
HENRY  CABOT  LODGE,  and  J.  T.  MORSE,  JR. 

The  Reign  of  Federalism :  BASSETT,  chaps,  xiv-xix ;  MACMASTER, 
Vol.  II,  chaps,  x,  xi ;  WALKER,  chap,  viii ;  J.  W.  FOSTER,  A  Century  of 
Diplomacy,  chap,  v ;  JOHN  B.  MOORE,  American  Diplomacy,  chaps,  ii, 
iii;  EDWARD  STANWOOD,  History  of  the  Presidency,  chaps,  iv,  v;  A.  B. 
HART,  American  History  told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  83-105  ; 
H.  VON  HOLST,  Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  I, 
chaps,  iii,  iv. 

The  Jeffersonian  Policies  :  EDWARD  CHANNING,  The  Jeffersonian  Sys 
tem  (Am.  Nation),  chaps,  i-xvii ;  R.  G.  THWAITES  (ed.),  Original  Journal 
of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Expedition  ;  MACMASTER,  Vols.  II,  III ;  ADAMS, 
Vols.  I-IV;  HART,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  106,  109,  115  ;  F.  A.  OGG,  The  Open 
ing  of  the  Mississippi,  chaps,  x-xiv ;  W.  F.  McCALEB,  The  Aaron  Burr 
Conspiracy^;  biographies  of  Jefferson  by  PAUL  LEICESTER  FORD,  J.  T. 
MORSE,  Jr.,  and  H.  C.  MERWIN. 

The  War  of  1812:  CHANNING,  chaps,  xviii-xx;  K.  C.  BABCOCK,  The 
Rise  of  American  Nationality  (Am.  Nation),  chaps,  i-xi ;  WINSOR,  Vol. 
VII,  chaps,  v-vii ;  HART,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  116-129;  Cambridge  Modern 
History,  Vol.  VII,  chap,  x ;  A.  T.  MAHAN,  The  War  of  1812;  THEO 
DORE  ROOSEVELT,  The  Naval  War  of  1812  ;  CARL  SCHURZ,  Henry  Clay 
(American  Statesmen  Series). 

TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1 .  The  Condition  of  the  Country  at  the  Inauguration  of  Washington : 
WALKER,  pp.  63-72  ;  HART,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  10-36 ;  MACMASTER,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  i-ioi ;  Vol.  II,  pp.  1-24;    BASSETT,  pp.  163-177;   WINSOR,   The 
Westward  Movement,  pp.  398-414. 

2.  The  Jay  Treaty :  WINSOR,  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America, 
Vol.  VII,  pp.  463-471  ;  The  Westward  Movement,  pp.  462-484  ;  GEORGE 
PELLEW,  John  Jay  (Am.  Statesmen),   chaps,  x,  xi;    HART,  Vol.  Ill, 
No.  97;  BASSETT,  pp.  125-135;  MOORE,  pp.  201-208;  WILLIAM  MC 
DONALD,  Select  Documents,  No.  14  (for  text). 

3.  The  French  War  of  1798-1799 :  MACMASTER,  Vol.  II,  pp.  370-388, 
428-434;  WALKER,  pp.  137-143  ;  WINSOR,  Narrative  and  Critical  His 
tory  of  America,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  361-368 ;  A.  J.  WOODBURN,  American 
Political  History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  162-179. 

4.  The  Lewis  and  Clark  Expedition:  ROOSEVELT,  The  Winning  of  the 
West,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  308-328;  HART,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  115;  CHANNING,  pp. 
86-99;  THWAITES,  Rocky  Mountain  Exploration,  pp.  92-187. 


226  The  New  Republic 

5.  The  War  Hawks  in  the  Twelfth  Congress  :  MACMASTER,  Vol.  Ill, 
pp.  426-458;    WALKER,  pp.  220-227;  BABCOCK,  pp.  50-63;    ADAMS, 
Vol.  VII,  pp.  113-175  ;'  SCHURZ,  Vol.  I,  chap,  v;  SCHOULER,  History  of 
the  United  States,  Vol.  II,  pp.  334-356. 

6.  The  Louisiana  Purchase :  MACMASTER,  Vol.  II,  pp.  620-63  5  ;  CHAN- 
NING,  pp.  47-72;  ADAMS,  Vol.  II,  pp.  116-134;  WILLIAM  M.  SLOANE, 
in  the  American  Historical  Review,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  439  ff. ;  ROOSEVELT, 
Vol.  IV,  pp.  258-282;  HART,  Foundations  of  American  Foreign  Policy, 
pp.  185-209;  MACDONALD,  No.  24  (for  text  of  treaty). 


PART  IV.    NATIONAL  VERSUS 
SECTIONAL  INTERESTS 


PART  IV.    NATIONAL   VERSUS 
SECTIONAL   INTERESTS 

CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  GROWTH  OF  A  NATIONAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

"  THE  ERA  OF  GOOD  FEELING  " 

The  close  of  the  second  war  with  England  (1815)  marks  an  307.  The 
epoch  in  American  history.  During  the  quarter  of  a  century  ^npietes'our 
which  elapsed  between  the  inauguration  of  George  Washington  independence 
and  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  at  Ghent,  the  United  States 
was  very  largely  influenced  by  European  politics.  Our  independ 
ence  was  acknowledged  but  not  respected.  Neither  the  French 
republic  nor  the  English  monarchy  accorded  us  the  courtesies 
due  to  a  sister  power ;  neither  Napoleon  nor  the  ministers  of 
George  III  heeded  our  protests  against  the  violation  of  a  neu 
tral  nation's  rights.  The  parties  which  called  themselves  Repub 
lican  and  Federalist  might  just  as  well  have  been  called  the 
French  and  the  English  party.  Foreign  wars  and  rumors  of 
war,  treaties,  protests,  embassies,  absorbed  the  energies  of  the 
administration  at  Washington.  Many  of  our  greatest  statesmen 
were  serving  their  country  in  foreign  capitals.  The  eyes  of  our 
people  were  turned  toward  the  Atlantic  to  welcome  our  swift 
packets  bringing  news  from  Paris,  London,  and  Madrid.  But 
with  the  "universal  peace"  of  1815  all  this  was  changed.  We 
turned  our  back  on  Europe,  and  faced  the  problems  of  our  own 
growing  land.  The  group  of  young  statesmen,  led  by  Henry 
Clay,  who  had  precipitated  the  War  of  1812  to  free  us  from 

229 


230  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

humiliating  dependence  on  the  orders  of  European  cabinets, 
were  imbued  with  one  idea,  —  the  boundless  resources  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  A  common  devotion  of  all  sections 
of  our  country  seemed  to  be  the  only  condition  necessary  for 
the  development  of  those  resources. 

308.  A  wave       When  James  Monroe  was    inaugurated  on   the  fourth  of 
enthusiasm      March,   1817,  the  country  was  already  at  the  full  tide  of  the 
fonowsthe      enthusiasm  for  expansion  which  followed  the  favorable  treaty 

of  Ghent.  Our  regular  army  had  been  thoroughly  reorganized 
and  raised. to  a  peace  footing  of  10,000  men.  The  immense 
sum  of  $8,000,000  had  been  appropriated  for  a  new  navy. 
The  tariff  rates,  which  had  been  doubled  in  1812  to  provide 
a  revenue  for  carrying  on  the  war,  were  still  kept  up,  and 
even  slightly  increased,  by  the  tariff  bill  of  1816,  whose 
object  was  to  encourage  and  protect  the  rising  manufactures 
which  both  North  and  South  hoped  would  in  a  few  years  make 
us  independent  of  Europe  industrially,  as  the  War  of  1812  had 
made  us  independent  of  Europe  politically.  Confident  pride  in 
the  growing  West  had  led  Congress  to  vote  such  lavish  dona 
tions  of  public  money  for  the  construction  of  roads  and  canals 
that  President  Madison  himself,  who  in  his  message  invited  the 
"  particular  attention  of  Congress  "  to  this  subject,  felt  obliged 
to  check  its  generosity  by  his  veto. 

309.  The  Any  manifestation  of  sectional  spirit  was  condemned  as  nar- 
sectional 

spirit  rebuked  row,  niggardly,  and  unpatriotic.    The  arrival  in  Washington  of 

the  delegates  of  the  Hartford  Convention,  to  complain  of  the 
mismanagement  of  the  war  and  demand  the  restitution  of  the 
commercial  privileges  of  New  England,  just  at  the  moment 
when  the  country  was  rejoicing  over  the  victory  of  Jackson  at 
New  Orleans  and  the  vindication  of  the  independence  of  our 
ships  and  sailors,  was  an  object  lesson  to  political  grumblers. 
These  New  England  Federalists,  if  they  had  not  meditated  treason 
in  their  convention  at  Hartford  in  1814,  had  nevertheless  gone 
to  the  verge  of  treason  in  refusing  to  send  their  militia  to  the 
northern  frontier  in  1812  at  Madison's  command,  in  winking  at 


The  Growth  of  a  National  Consciousness         231 

the  forbidden  but  prosperous  business  of  supplying  the  British 
armies  in  Canada  with  beef  and  grain,  and  in  refusing  to  sub 
scribe  for  10  per  cent  of  our  national  war  loan,  when  they  had 
almost  50  per  cent  of  the  money  of  the  country  in  their  banks. 
They  were  now  justly  rebuked  in  the  hour  of  the  victory  they 
had  done  so  little  to  secure.  Their  party  was  wrecked  ;  section 
alism  was  branded  with  a  stigma,  and  for  years  the  fall  of  the 
Federalists  served  as  a  text  for  exhortations  to  national  unity. 

A  few  weeks  after  his  inauguration  Monroe  made  an  extended  310.  Mon- 
tour  through  the  New  England  States,  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
and  Maryland,  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  inspecting  the 
national  defenses.  The  real  object  of  the  journey  was  quite 
as  much  to  strengthen  the  growing  Republicanism  of  New 
England.  No  better  proof  of  the  accomplishment  of  this  latter 
object  could  be  found  than  the  view  which  the  old  Federalist 
press  took  of  the  journey.  That  same  Columbian  Centinel  of 
Boston,  which  on  the  day  of  the  inauguration  of  the  first  Re 
publican  President,  Thomas  Jefferson,  had  published  a  bitter 
lament  over  the  defeat  of  the  glorious  Federalist  administration 
(p.  204),  now  hailed  the  inauguration  of  Jefferson's  bosom  friend 
and  political  follower,  James  Monroe,  as  the  promise  of  "  an 
era  of  good  feeling."  The  phrase  took  the  popular  fancy  and 
pleased  President  Monroe,  who  spread  it  during  his  journey, 
and  repeated  it  on  the  tour  of  the  Southern  states  which  he 
made  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  (1817).  It  has  remained 
ever  since  as  the  catchword  to  designate  the  period  of  Monroe's 
presidency,  when  the  Republican  party  had  no  rival,  and  when 
the  issues  which  were  to  split  this  apparently  united  party  into 
Whigs  and  Democrats  had  not  yet  taken  definite  enough  form 
to  lead  to  a  division. 

We  shall  study  some  of  those  issues  in  the  next  chapter.  31  1.  The 
Here  we  must  dwell  a  little  further  on  the  signs  of  national 


unity  which  characterized  the  decade  following  the  War  of  1812.  second  Na- 
Perhaps  no  act  of  Congress  during  that  decade  shows  more  1816 
clearly  how  thoroughly  the  war  had  nationalized  the  Republican 


232  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

party  than  the  establishment  of  a  second  National  Bank  in  1816. 
When  Alexander  Hamilton,  in  1791,  got  Congress  to  charter  a 
banking  corporation  with  a  capital  of  $10,000,000  to  handle 
the  financial  business  of  the  government,  hold  all  the  public 
moneys  on  deposit,  and  negotiate  the  national  loans,  there  was 
a  great  outcry  against  this  alliance  of  the  government  with  the 
money  power  of  the  country.  The  capitalists  would  get  the 
President  and  Congress  into  their  control,  it  was  said,  and  by 
bribery  or  threat  of  commercial  panic  would  force  through 
legislation  favorable  to  their  own  interests.  The  Republican 
party  "had  maintained  a  steady  opposition  to  the  Bank  during 
the  twenty  years  of  its  existence,  and  had  refused  to  recharter 
it  when  its  term  expired  in  181 1.  "  The  state  banks,"  they  said, 
"  are  the  pillars  of  the  nation." 

But  during  the  War  of  1812  the  state  banks  had  all  failed. 
There  was  no  confidence  in  financial  circles  because  there  was 
no  standard  of  currency.  Notes  of  New  York  banks  were  at  a 
discount  in  Boston,  and  notes  of  Baltimore  banks  at  a  discount 
in  New  York ;  while  the  paper  of  the  "  wildcat "  banks  of  the 
West  was  practically  worthless  in  the  commercial  centers  of  the 
Atlantic  seaboard.  The  state  banks,  which  had  been  "  the  pil 
lars  of  the  nation,"  had  now  become,  said  one  senator,  "  the 
caterpillars  of  the  nation."  The  same  men  who  had  denounced 
the  National  Bank  in  1811  and  refused  to  renew  its  charter 
now  pleaded  in  favor  of  it.  The  same  Republican  press  which 
had  assailed  Hamilton  in  1791  now  reprinted  his  arguments  in 
favor  of  the  Bank.  And  the  same  party  which  had  feared  the 
sinister  influence  on  politics  of  a  bank  with  $10,000,000  capital 
in  1811  five  years  later  chartered  a  new  National  Bank  with  a 
capital  stock  of  $35,000,000,  of  which  the  government  was  to 
hold  $7,000,000.  The  effect  of  this  was  the  instantaneous  re 
turn  of  confidence  to  the  merchants  and  bankers  of  the  country. 
The  state  banks  were  forced  to  keep  their  paper  up  to  the 
standard  set  by  the  National  Bank  or  retire  from  business. 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  Dallas,  who  found  the  United  States 


The  Growth  of  a  National  Consciousness        233 


Treasury  empty  in  the  autumn  of  1814,  left  a  surplus  of 
$20,000,000  to  his  successor,  Crawford,  three  years  later. 

Another  important  sign  of  the  growing  national  consciousness  312.  impor- 
was  the  strengthening  of  the  national  government  by  several 
important  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court.    John  Marshall  of 
Virginia,  a  moderate  Federalist,  who  had  served  with  distinction  John  Marshall 
as  an  officer  in  the  Revolution,  and  had  later  been  special  envoy 
to  France,  member  of  Congress,  and  for  a  brief  period  Secretary 
of  State,  was  appointed  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
by  John  Adams  in  the  spring 
of   1 80 1.     Marshall  held  this 
highest  judicial  office   in   the 
country  for  thirty-four  years, 
and,  by  his  famous  decisions 
interpreting   the   Constitution, 
made  for  himself  the  greatest 
name    in   the   history   of   the 
American    bench.    When   the 
peace  of  1815  turned  the  at 
tention  of   the   country  from 
foreign  negotiations  to  the  de 
velopment  of  the  national  do 
main,  many  questions  arose  as 
to  the  exact  limits  of  the  powers 
of  the  national  government  and 

of  the  various  states.  The  people  of  the  United  States  had  given 
the  national  Congress  certain  powers  enumerated  in  the  Consti 
tution,  such  as  the  power  to  lay  taxes,  to  declare  war,  to  raise  and 
support  armies,  to  regulate  commerce,  to  coin  money,  and  to 
make  all  laws  which  were  "  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying 
into  execution  "  the  powers  granted.  Marshall  and  his  associates 
on  the  Supreme  bench,  in  a  number  of  important  cases  which 
came  before  them  to  test  these  powers,  rendered  verdicts  in 
support  of  the  national  authority  against  that  of  the  states. 


John  Marshall 

Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
1801-1835 


234  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

313.  Martin       For  example,  in  1816  the  court  of  appeals  of  the  state  of 
Lesife^Sie8   Virginia  refused  to  allow  a  case  to  be  taken  from  it  to  the  Su 
preme  Court  at  Washington,  on  the  ground  that  the  state  courts 
were  independent  of  the  national  (federal)   courts.    But  the 
Supreme  Court  upheld  the  Judiciary  Act  of  1789,  which  allowed 
every  case  involving  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to 
come  to  Washington  on  final  appeal. 

314.  McCui-       Three  years  later  the  state  of  Maryland  laid  a  tax  on  the 
Maryland,      business  of  the  branch  of  the  National  Bank  established  in  that 
1819  state,  claiming  that  the  Constitution  did  not  give  Congress  any 

right  to  establish  a  bank.  Marshall  wrote  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  in  this  case,  justifying  the  right  of  Congress  to 
establish  a  bank  as  a  measure  necessary  and  proper  for  carry 
ing  into  execution  the  laws  for  raising  a  revenue  and  regulating 
the  currency.  The  state  was  forbidden  to  tax  the  bank  except 
for  the  ground  and  building  it  occupied. 

315.  The  In  the  same  year,  in  the  famous  Dartmouth  College  case, 
Coue™ecase,  the  Supreme  Court  annulled  a  law  of  the  legislature  of  New 
1819              Hampshire,  which  altered  the  charter  of  the  college  against  the 

will  of  the  trustees.  The  charter,  the  court  held,  was  a  con 
tract  between  the  legislature  and  the  trustees;  and  since  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  forbids  any  state  to  pass  a 
law  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts  (Art.  I,  sect.  10),  the 
law  of  the  New  Hampshire  legislature  was  null  and  void. 

316.  Ogden        Again,  five  years  later,  the  Supreme  Court  annulled  a  law  of 
1824  '  the  state  of  New  York.    The  legislature  of  New  York  had 

granted  to  Robert  Livingston  and  Robert  Fulton,  the  great 
steamboat  promoters,  a  monopoly  of  steam  navigation  in  all  the 
waters  belonging  to  the  state,  thus  excluding  from  New  York 
harbor  the  steam  craft  of  New  Jersey  or  New  England.  Marshall, 
invoking  the  clause  of  the  national  Constitution  which  gives 
Congress  the  right  "  to  regulate  commerce  among  the  several 
states  "  (Art.  I,  sect.  8),  argued  that  navigation  forms  an  indis 
pensable  part  of  commerce,  and  hence  no  state  could  exclude 
the  vessels  of  other  states  from  its  waters. 


The  Growth  of  a  National  Consciousness         235 

These  decisions,  with  several  others  of  like  character,  show 
how  the  judicial  branch  of  our  government  contributed  to  the 
national  feeling  which  we  have  already  seen  dominating  the 
legislative  branch  (Congress)  in  the  passage  of  the  army  and 
navy  bills,  the  Bank  bill,  and  the  tariff  bill  (1816). 

Still  further  indications  of  a  new  national  consciousness  in  the  317.  Changes 
decade  which  followed  the  war  that  "  completed  our  independ-  economic  con- 

ence  "  may  be  seen  in  manv  facts  of  our  social  and  economic  ditions> 

1816-1820 
life.   The  movement  and  mingling  of  population  in  immigration 

from  Europe  and  emigration  to  the  West  was  rapidly  breaking 
down  the  social  privileges  and  prejudices  of  sections  of  our 
country.  In  New  England,  for  example,  the  old  Puritan  domin 
ion  was  yielding  to  democratic  tendencies  in  politics  and  religion. 
Connecticut  in  her  constitution  of  1818  (the  first  new  one  since 
her  colonial  charter  of  1662)  did  away  with  religious  qualifica 
tions  for  office.  New  Hampshire  followed  in  1819,  and  the  next 
year  the  Massachusetts  convention  for  framing  a  constitution 
was  torn  with  dissensions  between  the  new  Unitarians  and  the 
old  Orthodox  believers.  The  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Southern 
states  also  lost  its  predominance  with  the  increase  of  Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterian  immigrants  and  the  growth  of  Methodism  in  the 
frontier  communities.  Distinctly  popular  movements  looking 
toward  the  improvement  of  labor  conditions,  the  establishment 
of  public  schools,  the  health  and  cleanliness  of  cities,  began  to 
be  agitated  in  these  years.  Further  westward  emigration  was 
encouraged  by  the  reduction  of  the  price  of  public  lands  from 
$2  to  $1.25  an  acre,  and  the  sale  of  So-acre  lots  instead  of 
the  customary  sections  of  160  acres.  In  spite  of  the  caution 
of  Madison  and  Monroe,  Congress  passed  ten  acts  before  1820, 
appropriating  in  all  over  $1,500,000  for  roads  and  canals. 

Finally,  the  beginnings  of  a  truly  national  literature  fell  within  sis.  The  be- 
these  years.   The  North  American  Review,  our  first  creditable  f^f££n 
magazine,  appeared  in  1815.    Two  years  later  William  Cullen  literature 
Bryant  published  his  "  Thanatopsis,"  and  the  next  year  appeared 
Washington  Irving's  "  Sketch  Book."   James  Fenimore  Cooper 


236  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

began  shortly  afterward  his  famous  series  of  novels  dealing  with 
Indian  life.  Hitherto  the  work  of  American  writers,  in  all  but 
political  and  religious  subjects,  had  been  but  a  feeble  copy  of 
the  contemporary  English  models.  In  Bryant,  Irving,  and 
Cooper,  America  produced  her  first  distinctively  native  talent, 
which  drew  its  inspiration  from  the  natural  beauties,  the  historical 
traditions,  and  the  novel  life  of  the  western  world. 

319.  The  When  the  election  of  1820  approached  there  was  no  rival 
rSctLoiTof  candidate  to  Monroe  in  the  field.    The  Federalist  party,  with 
Monroe,         t^e  exception  of  a  few  irreconcilables  and  immovables,  who,  in 

the  witty  language  of  one  of  their  number,  reminded  themselves 
of  the  "  melancholy  state  of  a  man  who  has  remained  sober 
when  all  his  companions  have  become  intoxicated,"  had  been 
entirely  merged  with  the  nationalized  Republicans  in  the  "  era 
of  good  feeling."  Monroe  received  the  vote  of  every  elector 
but  one,  who  cast  his  ballot  for  John  Quincy  Adams  for  the 
purely  sentimental  reason  that  he  did  not  wish  to  see  any  Presi 
dent  after  George  Washington  elected  by  the  unanimous  voice 
of  the  American  people. 

THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE 

It  was  not  alone  in  the  development  of  our  western  domain 
and  the  reinforcement  of  the  federal  power  by  acts  of  Congress 
and  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  that  the  spirit  of  the  new 
Americanism  manifested  itself  in  the  decade  following  the  treaty 
of  Ghent.  That  generous  glow  of  national  enthusiasm  cast  its 
reflection  over  the  whole  Western  Hemisphere. 

320.  our  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  United  States  in  181  s  oc- 
neighbors  in  .    ,  ,.    , 

I8l5  cupied  much  less  of  the  North  American  continent  than  it  does 

to-day.  Alaska,  with  its  valuable  furs  and  fisheries,  belonged  to 
the  Russian  Empire.  Besides  her  present  Dominion  ef  Canada, 
Great  Britain  claimed  the  Oregon  country,  a  huge  region  lying 
between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Pacific  Ocean,  extending 
from  the  northern  boundary  of  the  present  state  of  California 


The  Growth  of  a  National  Consciousness         237 

indefinitely  toward  the  Alaskan  shore.  The  possessions  of  Spain 
reached  in  an  unbroken  line  from  Cape  Horn  to  a  point  four 
hundred  miles  north  of  San  Francisco.  They  comprised  not 
only  all  of  South  America  (except  Brazil  and  Guiana),  Central 
America,  Mexico,  and  the  choicest  islands  of  the  West  Indies, 
but  also  the  immense  region  west  of  the  Mississippi  valley, 
which  now  includes  California,  Nevada,  Arizona,  New  Mexico, 
and  Texas,  with  parts  of  Wyoming,  Colorado,  Kansas,  and 
Oklahoma.  Spain  also  owned  what  is  now  the  state  of  Florida 
(then  called  East  Florida),  and  claimed  a  strip  of  land  (called 
West  Florida)  extending  along  the  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
from  Florida  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  This  gave  her 
practical  control  of  the  whole  shore  of  the  Gulf. 

We  disputed  the  claim  of  Spain  to  West  Florida,  however.  321.  we  dis- 
According  to  the  interpretation  of  our  State  Department  at  ^oridT^ith 
Washington,  this  -territory  formed  part  of  the  original  French  sPain 
tract  of  Louisiana  (1682-1763),  and  hence  was  included  in  the 
transfer  from  Spain  to  Napoleon  in  1800,  and  in  Napoleon's 
sale  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States  three  years  later.   Spain, 
with  better  reason,  maintained  that  the  boundaries  of  the  old 
French  Louisiana   had   nothing   to   do  with  the  transactions 
between  Napoleon  and  the  United  States  at  the  opening  of  the 
nineteenth  century ;  that  she  had  received  West  Florida  by  the 
treaty  of  1783,  and  that  she  had  not  parted  with  it  since. 

We  wanted  the  Florida  strip  along  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  for  322.  we 
many  reasons.    It  was  the  refuge  of  Indians,  runaway  slaves,  ^^liorida 
fugitives  from  justice,  pirates,  and  robbers,  who  terrorized  the  October,  i8IO 
South  and  prevented  the  development  of  Georgia  and  the  Mis 
sissippi  territory.    It  offered  in  the  fine  harbors  of  Mobile  and 
Pensacola  an  outlet  for  the  commerce  of  the  new  cotton  region. 
Besides,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  was  the  "  natural  boundary  "  of 
the  United  States  on  the  south.    President  Madison,  therefore, 
in  October,  1810,  ordered  Governor  Claiborne  of  the  Orleans 
territory  to  take  possession  of  West  Florida  as  far  as  the  Perdido 
River.    Early  the  next  year  Congress  by  a  secret  act  authorized 


238 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


323.  Jack 
son's  "con 
quest  "  of 
East  Florida, 
1817-1818 


the  President  to  occupy  East  Florida  also.  If  the  occupation  of 
West  Florida  by  the  United  States  was  of  very  doubtful  legality, 
the  attempted  seizure  of  East  Florida  was  downright  robbery. 
Great  Britain  protested  so  strongly  that  Madison  prudently  dis 
avowed  the  acts  of  his  agents  in  the  latter  province  and  with 
drew  the  American  troops  in  1813. 

But  the  Floridas  continued  to  be  a  source  of  annoyance  to 
the  United  States.  They  even  furnished  a  base  for  England  in 
the  War  of  1812.  Spain  was  too  weak  to  maintain  her  authority 
there  and  miserably  failed  to  redeem  her  pledge  in  the  treaty  of 


SOUTH 
CAROLINA 


GULF         OF 


Jackson  in  Florida 

1795,  to  prevent  the  Indians  of  Florida  from  attacking  citizens 
of  the  United  States.  Finally,  the  Seminole  Indians  grew  so 
dangerous  that  President  Monroe  ordered  General  Andrew 
Jackson,  the  "  hero  of  New  Orleans,"  to  pursue  them  even  into 
Spanish  territory  (December,  1817).  Jackson  was  a  man  who 
needed  no  second  invitation  for  an  Indian  hunt.  "  Let  it  be 
signified  to  me  through  any  channel,"  he  wrote  Monroe,  "  that 
the  possession  of  the  Floridas  would  be  desirable  to  the  United- 
States,  and  in  sixty  days  it  will  be  accomplished."  Jackson  did 
not  even  wait  for  a  reply  to  his  letter.  He  swept  across  East 
Florida,  reducing  the  Spanish  strongholds  of  Gadsden,  St.  Marks, 


The  Growth  of  a  National  Consciousness         239 

and  Pensacola,  executed  by  court-martial  two  British  subjects 
who  were  inciting  the  negroes  and  Indians  to  murder  and 
pillage,  and  by  the  end  of  May,  1818,  was  on  his  way  back  to 
Tennessee,  leaving  Florida  a  conquered  province. 

Jackson's  campaign  brought  the  Florida  question  to  a  crisis.  324. 
The  administration  at  Washington  was  in  a  dilemma.  If  it 
indorsed  his  course,  it  would  have  to  go  further,  and  put  the 
responsibility  for  war  in  Florida  on  the  shoulders  of  Spain.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  it  should  repudiate  Jackson's  course,  it  would 
strengthen  the  position  of  Spain  in  Florida  and  make  it  more 
difficult  to  acquire  that  desirable  province.  John  C.  Calhoun, 
the  Secretary  of  War,  was  for  censuring  Jackson  for  exceeding 
his  instructions ;  but  John  Quincy  Adams,  Secretary  of  State, 
persuaded  the  President  to  put  on  a  bold  front  and  make 
Jackson's  campaign  the  basis  for  a  final  demand  on  Spain  either 
to  fulfill  her  promise  to  keep  order  in  Florida  or  to  turn  the 
province  over  to  the  United  States.  "  The  President  will  neither 
inflict  punishment  nor  pass  censure  on  General  Jackson  for  his 
conduct,"  he  wrote  to  Minister  Erving  at  Madrid  in  November, 
1818.  "  We  shall  hear  no  apologies  from  Spanish  governors  of 
their  inability  to  perform  the  solemn  contracts  of  their  country. 
The  duty  of  the  government  to  protect  the  persons  and  prop 
erty  of  our  fellow  citizens  on  the  borders  of  the  United  States  is 
imperative —  it  must  be  discharged." 

But  Spain  was  in  no  condition  in  1818  to  perform  her  "  sol-  32"5.  Spain 
emn  contracts."    Ten  years  earlier  Napoleon   Bonaparte  had  South  Amer- 

invaded  her  borders,  overthrown  her  dynasty,  and  seated  his  ican  co}°~ 

J  nies,  1807— 

brother  Joseph  on  the  throne  of  Madrid.  This  upheaval  in  the  1825 
mother  country  had  been  the  signal  for  the  revolt  of  the  Spanish 
colonies  in  South  America,  oppressed  as  they  were  by  crushing 
taxes,  commercial  restrictions,  and  grasping  governors.  The  res 
toration  of  the  absolute  Spanish  king  after  Napoleon's  down 
fall  (1814)  had  only  increased  the  fires  of  revolt  in  the 
colonies.  The  great  patriot  generals,  San  Martin  and  Simon 
Bolivar,  wrested  province  after  province  —  Chile,  Argentina, 


240  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

Peru,  Venezuela,  New  Granada  (now  Colombia)  —  from  the 
Spanish  crown,  and  established  those  South  American  repub 
lics  which  for  a  century  have  maintained  a  troubled  life  of 
revolution  and  mutual  warfare. 

326.  Spain         Involved  in  all  these  difficulties,  the  Spanish  court  decided  to 
Florida  to       abandon  Florida  to  the  United  States.    The  treaty  was  signed 
states "reb-  at  Washington,  February  22,  1819.   The  United  States  assumed 
ruaryaz,  1819  about  $5,000,000  of  claims  of  its  citizens  against  Spain,  for 

damages  to  our  commerce  in  the  Napoleonic  wars,  and  in  return 
received  the  whole  of  Florida.  At  the  same  time  the  western 
boundary  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  territory  was  fixed  by  a 
line  running  from  the  Sabine  River  in  a  stairlike  formation 
north  and  west  to  the  forty-second  parallel  of  latitude,  and 
thence  west  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.1 

327.  our  Meanwhile  we  were  watching  with  great  interest  the  progress 
south  Ameri-  of  the  revolution  in  the  Spanish  colonies  of  South  America.   As 
can  affairs       early  as   1811  President  Madison  had  called  the  attention  of 

Congress  to  "  the  scenes  developing  among  the  great  commu 
nities  which  occupy  the  southern  portion  of  our  hemisphere." 
During  the  years  1811-1817  tne  United  States  maintained 
"  consuls,"  who  were  really  government  spies,  at  Buenos  Aires, 
Caracas,  and  other  centers  of  the  revolt.  Henry  Clay,  the 
Speaker  and  leader  of  the  House,  tried  to  force  President  Mon 
roe  into  a  hasty  recognition  of  the  South  American  republics. 
But  the  Secretary  of  State,  John  Quincy  Adams,  was  more  cau 
tious.  He  had  little  confidence  that  the  new  republics  would  be 
able  to  maintain  their  independence,  and  he  furthermore  feared 
that  interference  by  the  United  States  in  the  affairs  of  the  "  re 
bellious  colonies  "  of  South  America  would  offend  the  Spanish 
court  and  so  endanger  the  success  of  the  negotiations  for  the 
acquisition  of  Florida. 

1  The  line  ran  from  the  mouth  of  the  Sabine  River  north  to  the  Red  River ; 
thence  west  along  the  Red  River  to  the  one-hundredth  meridian  of  west  longi 
tude  ;  thence  north  to  the  Arkansas  River ;  thence  west  along  the  Arkansas  to  its 
source  ;  thence  north  to  the  forty-second  parallel  of  latitude  ;  thence  due  west  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean  (see  map,  opposite  p.  210). 


The  Growth  of  a  National  Consciousness        241 

However,  in  the  year  1821  there  occurred  four  events  which  328.  our 
determined  the  administration  to  change  its  policy  in  regard  to 
the  recognition  of  the  South  American  republics.  First,  the  final 
ratifications  of  the  treaty  of  1819  were  signed,  and  Florida  was  May,  1822 
ours  ;  secondly,  the  House,  by  a  vote  of  86  to  68,  resolved  to 
support  the  President  as  soon  as  he  saw  fit  to  recognize  the 
independence  of  the  South  American  states  ;  thirdly,  the  Czar 
of  Russia  issued  a  ukase  (decree)  forbidding  the  vessels  of 
any  other  nation  to  approach  within  one  hundred  miles  of 
the  western  coast  of  North  America,  above  the  fifty-first 
parallel  of  latitude,  claimed  by  Russia  as  the  southern  boundary 
of  her  colony  of  Alaska  ;  and  fourthly,  the  allied  powers  of 
Russia,  Prussia,  Austria,  and  France,  having  pledged  themselves 
by  the  "  Holy  Alliance  "  to  the  restoration  of  the  power  and 
the  possessions  of  all  the  "  legitimate  thrones  "  which  the 
Napoleonic  wars  had  overthrown,  began  to  listen  to  Spain's  re 
quest  to  subdue  revolts  in  Madrid  and  restore  the  rebellious 
colonies  in  South  America.  On  May  4,  1822,  President  Monroe 
took  the  first  step  in  the  protection  of  the  South  American 
republics,  by  recognizing  their  independence  ;  and  Congress 
immediately  made  provision  for  the  dispatch  of  ministers  to 
their  capitals. 

Neither  Great  Britain  nor  the  United  States  could  view  with  329.  Great 
indifference  the  intervention  of  the  allied  powers  of  Europe  to 


reduce  the  South  American  republics  to  submission  to  Spain.  J°in  in  warn 

ing  the  Holy 
These  republics  had  naturally  thrown  off  the  commercial  re-  Alliance  not 

strictions  of    Spain    with  her  political    authority.     They   had  the  new 
already,  by  1822,  built  up  a  trade  of  $3,000,000  a  year  with  rePubllcs 
Great  Britain,  and  their  market  was  too  valuable  a  one  to  lose. 
Our  own  government  was  distressed  by  the  rumors  that  France 
would  take  Mexico,  and  Russia  would  seize  California,  with 
perhaps  Chile  and  Peru  to  boot,  as  a  reward  for  their  part  in 
crushing  the  rebellious  governments.    Accordingly  the  English 
premier,  George   Canning,  suggested  to   Richard   Rush,    our 
minister  in  London,  that  the  United  States  join  Great  Britain 


242 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


330.  The 
United  States 
acts  alone 


331.  Analy 
sis  of  the 
Monroe 
Doctrine, 
December  2, 
1823 


in  making  a  declaration  to  the  allied  powers  to  keep  their  hands 
off  the  new  South  American  states. 

Monroe  was  anxious  to  act  on  Canning's  suggestion,  and  the 
two  ex-Presidents,  Madison  and  the  aged  Jefferson,  replied  to 
his  request  for  advice  by  letters  of  hearty  approval.  Secretary 
Adams  declared  we  ought  not  to  follow  England's  lead,  trailing 
"  like  a  cockboat  to  a  British  man-of-war,"  but  rather  assume 
full  and  sole  responsibility  ourselves  for  the  protection  of  the 
republics  on  the  American  continent.  He  therefore  wrote,  and 
handed  to  Monroe  to  incorporate  in  his  annual  message  to 
Congress  of  December  2,  1823,  the  famous  statement  of  the 
policy  of  the  United  States  toward  the  territory  and  govern 
ment  of  the  rest  of  the  American  continent,  which  has  ever 
since  been  celebrated  as  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 

The  message  declared  that  the  continents  of  the  Western 
Hemisphere  were  "  henceforth  not  to  be  considered  as  subjects 
for  future  colonization  by  any  European  powers,"  —  this  to  pre 
vent  the  encroachments  of  Russia  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  the 
designs  of  France  on  Mexico.  Further,  it  announced  the  de 
termination  of  the  United  States  neither  to  meddle  with  the 
European  systems  of  government  nor  to  disturb  the  existing 
possessions  of  European  powers  in  the  New  World.  "  But,"  it 
continued,  "  we  owe  it  to  candor  and  to  the  amicable  relations 
existing  between  the  United  States  and  those  powers  to  declare 
that  we  should  consider  any  attempt  on  their  part  to  extend 
the  principles  of  the  Holy  Alliance  to  any  portion  of  this  hemi 
sphere  as  dangerous  to  our  peace  and  safety."  In  other  words, 
the  South  American  republics,  whose  independence  we  had, 
"  on  great  considerations  and  on  just  principles,  acknowledged," 
were  no  longer  "  existing  possessions  of  Spain  "  ;  and  any  at 
tempt  to  impose  upon  them  the  absolutism  of  the  Spanish  court 
by  the  powers  of  continental  Europe  would  be  "  viewed  as  the 
manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  disposition  toward  the  United 
States."  From  the  acknowledgment  of  the  South  American 
republics,  then,  in  1822,  the  United  States  advanced  in  1823  to 


The  Growth  of  a  National  Consciousness         243 

the  defense  of  their  territory  and  of  their  republican  form  of 
government  against  European  interference. 

The  Monroe  Doctrine  has  been  one  of  the  most  popular  332.  inter- 
political  principles  in  our  history.  It  goes  back  for  its  basal  idea 
to  George  Washington's  warning  against  "  entangling  alliances  J 
with  foreign  nations,"  in  his  Farewell  Address  of  1796;  and  it  history 
is  upheld  rigorously  on  the  political  platform  and  in  the  press 
whenever  there  is  a  question  of  settling  a  boundary  or  collect 
ing  a  debt  in  the  Spanish-American  states.  Our  statesmen  have 
gradually  stretched  the  doctrine  far  beyond  its  original  declara 
tion  of  the  protection  of  the  territory  and  the  government  of 
the  republics  of  Central  and  South  America.  It  has  even  been 
invoked  as  a  reason  for  annexing  territory  to  the  United  States 
in  order  to  prevent  the  seizure  of  the  same  territory  by  some 
European  power.  Some  of  our  political  experts  believe  that  the 
logical  result  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  will  be  the  federation  of 
the  Latin  states  of  Central  and  South  America  under  the  leader 
ship  of  the  great  republic  of  the  north. 

REFERENCES 

The  Era  of  Good  Feeling  :  J.  B.  MACMASTER,  History  of  the  People  of 
the  United  States,  Vol.  IV,  chaps,  xxxiii,  xxxvi ;  WOODROW  WILSON, 
History  of  the  American  People,  Vol.  Ill,  chap,  iv ;  HENRY  ADAMS,  His 
tory  of  the  United  States  in  the  Administrations  of  Jefferson  and  Madison, 
Vol.  IX;  K.  C.  BABCOCK,  The  Rise  of  American  Nationality  (American 
Nation  Series),  chaps,  xii-xv;  J.  W.  BURGESS,  The  Middle  Period, 
chap,  i ;  D.  C.  OILMAN,  James  Monroe  (American  Statesmen  Series) ; 
W.  W.  WILLOUGHBY,  The  Siipreme  Court  of  the  United  States  (Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies,  Baltimore,  1890). 

The  Monroe  Doctrine :  MACMASTER,  Vol.  V,  chap,  xli ;  BURGESS, 
chaps,  ii,  v;  BABCOCK,  chap,  xvii ;  F.  J.  TURNER,  The  Rise  of  the  New 
West  (Am.  Nation),  chap,  xii ;  F.  L.  PAXSON,  The  Independence  of  the  South 
American  Republics;  J.  H.  LATANE,  The  Diplomatic  Relations  of  the 
United  States  and  Spanish  America;  W.  C.  ¥ox.Y),John  Quincy  Adams; 
his  Connection  with  the  Monroe  Doctrine  (American  Historical  Review, 
Vol.  VII,  pp.  676-696;  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  28-52);  W.  F.  REDDAWAY,  The 
Monroe  Doctrine, 


244  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  The  Development  of  Canals  and  Roads  :  KATHERINE  COM  AN,  In 
dustrial  History  of  the  United  States,  pp.  202-211  ;  TURNER,  pp.  67-95, 
224-235;  BABCOCK,  pp.  243-258;  MACMASTER,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  381-429; 
E.  E.  SPARKS,  The  Expansion  of  the  American  People,  pp.  264-269;  R. 
T.  STEVENSON,  The  Growth  of  the  Nation,  1809-1837,  pp.  145-174. 

2.  John  Marshall  and  the  Supreme  Court :  A.  B.  HART,  The  Formation 
of  the  Union,  pp.  234-236;   II.  C.  LODGE,  Daniel  Webster  (American 
Statesmen  Series),  chap,  iii ;  A.  B.  MAGRUDER,  John  Marshall  (Am. 
Statesmen),  chap,  x;  BABCOCK,  pp.  290-308;  C.  A.  BEARD,  Readings 
in  American  Government  and  Politics,  Nos.  27,  112—114,  118. 

3.  The  Holy  Alliance  :  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Contem 
poraries,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  142;  BURGESS,  pp.  123-126;  MACMASTER,  Vol. 
V,  pp.  30-41  ;  C.  A.  FYFFE,  History  of  Modern  Europe,  Vol.  II,  chap,  i; 
M.  E.  G.  DUFF,  Studies  in  European  Politics,  chap.  ii. 

4.  Modern  Interpretations  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  :  J.  B.  MOORE,  Ameri 
can  Diplomacy,  pp.  152-167  ;  also  in  Harper's  Magazine,  Vol.  CIX,  pp. 
857  ff. ;  A.  B.  HART,  Fotindations  of  American  Diplomacy,  pp.  211-240; 
A.  C.  COOLIDGE,  The  United  States  as  a  World  Power,  pp.  95-110  ;  J.  H. 
LATANE,  America  as  a    World  Power  (American  Nation  Series),  pp. 
255-268. 

5.  American  Literature  a  Century  Ago :    MACMASTER,  Vol.  V,  pp. 
268-306;  ADAMS,  Vol.  IX,  pp.  198-214;  W.  E.  SIMONDS,  Student  His 
tory  of  American  Literature,  pp.  94—146. 


CHAPTER  IX 

SECTIONAL   INTERESTS 

FACING  WESTWARD 

Although  many  thousand  pioneers  had  crossed  the  Alleghe-  333.  nin 
nies  to  the  rich  valleys  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Tennessee  before  western  de- 


the  War  of  1812,  the  supply  of  both  men  and  capital  was  too 

meager  to  develop  the  resources  of  the  whole  eastern  basin  of  the  war  of  i8ia 

Mississippi.    The  Indians,  instigated  by  England  on  the  north 

and  by  Spain  on  the  south,  were  a  constant  source  of  danger. 

Lack  of  roads  was  so  serious  a  handicap  that  it  was  not  profita 

ble  to  raise  wheat  far  from  the  banks  of  navigable  rivers.    The 

barrier  of  the  Alleghenies  made  transportation  between  the 

Ohio  valley  and    the  seaboard   so  expensive  that  the  wagon 

driver  got  the  lion's  share  both  of  the  money  for  which  the 

Western  farmer  sold  his  wheat  in  Virginia  and  of  the  money 

which  he  paid  for  his  plow  in  Ohio.    If  the  pioneer  floated  his 

cargo  of  wheat,  pork,  or  tobacco  down  the  Mississippi  to  New 

Orleans  in  a  flatboat,  it  was  more  profitable  to  sell  boat  and  all 

there  and   return  home  on    horseback  than    to    spend  three 

months  battling  his  way  up  against  the  current. 

But  during  the  decade  1810-1820  these  difficulties  in  the  334.  Their 

,     removal  in 
way  of  the  development  of  the  West  were  rapidly  removed,  the  decade 

William  Henry  Harrison  by  his  victories  over  Tecumseh's  l8ic>-1820 
braves  at  Tippecanoe  Creek  in  Indiana  territory  (1811),  and 
Andrew  Jackson  by  his  pacification  of  the  Creeks  and  Seminoles 
in  Florida  (1813-1818),  put  an  end  to  the  danger  from  the 
Indians  on  our  frontiers.  In  1  8  1  1  the  steamboat  (which  many 
years  of  experiment  by  Fitch  and  Fulton,  on  the  Delaware,  the 
Seine,  and  the  Hudson,  had  brought  to  efficiency)  made  its  first 

245 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

ippearance  on  the  Ohio  River.  Henceforth  the  journey  from 
'Louisville  to  New  Orleans  and  back  could  be  made  inside  of  a 
month,  and  the  products  of  the  Gulf  region  could  be  brought  to 
the  Northwest  by  the  return  voyage. 

335.  Re-  The  interruption  of  our  foreign  commerce  by  embargo,  non- 

warddemfgra-  intercourse,  and  war  had  sent  thousands  of  families  westward 

tion  across  the  mountains,  where  better  farm  land  could  be  bought 

from  the  government  at  two  dollars  an  acre,  with  liberal  credit, 

than  could  be  had  for  ten  times  that  price  in   cash  on  the 


Canal  Boats  crossing  the  Mountains 

seaboard.  Moreover,  a  stream  of  immigrants  of  the  hardy 
northern  stocks  of  Europe  began  to  pour  into  our  country 
after  the  War  of  1812,  to  swell  the  westward  march  to  the 
farm  lands  of  the  Ohio  valley.  In  the  single  year  1817, 
22,000  Irish  and  Germans  came  over.  A  ceaseless  procession 
passed  along  the  Mohawk  valley  and  over  the  mountain  roads 
of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia.  "  The  old  America  seems  to  be 
breaking  up  and  moving  westward,"  wrote  an  Englishman  who 
migrated  to  Illinois  in  1817.  A  gatekeeper  on  a  Pennsylvania 
turnpike  counted  over  500  wagons  with  3000  emigrants  passing 
in  a  single  month. 


Sectional  Interests 


247 


At  the  same  time  the  cotton  planters  of  the  South  were  mov-  336.  Exten- 
ing  from  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  into  the  fertile  Mississippi  ^ton  fields 
territory  which  the  campaigns  of  Andrew  Jackson  had  freed  totheMissis- 
from  the  terror  of  the  savage.    The  invention  of  machinery  in 
England  for  the  spinning  and  weaving  of  cotton  had  increased 
the  demand  for  that  article  beyond  the  power  of  the  planters 
to  satisfy,  even  with  the  hundredfold  increase  of  production 
effected  by  Eli  Whitney's  invention  of  the  cotton  gin.    How 
eagerly  the  planters  turned  to  the  virgin  soil  along  the  Gulf 


Picking  and  loading  Cotton 


of  Mexico  may  be  seen  from  the  following  figures.  In  1810 
less  than  5,000,000  pounds  of  cotton  were  grown  west  of  the 
Alleghenies,  out  of  a  total  crop  of  80,000,000  pounds ;  ten 
years  later  the  new  Western  states  (Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Ala 
bama)  produced  60,000,000  pounds  out  of  a  total  crop  of 
175,000,000  pounds  ;  and  five  years  later  still,  these  same  states 
raised  over  160,000,000  pounds,  or  about  one  half  the  entire 
crop  of  the  country. 

With  the  attractions  of  cheap  and  fertile  farm  lands  in  the  337.  Rapid 
Northwest  and  virgin  cotton  soil  in  the  Southwest,  the  trans-  fhe^new°west 
Allegheny  country  far  outstripped  the  seaboard  states  in  growth 


248 


Sectional  Interests  249 

of  population.  While  the  census  of  1820  showed  an  increase  of 
only  35  per  cent  in  the  New  England  States,  and  92  per  cent 
in  the  Middle  Atlantic  States,  over  the  population  at  the  begin 
ning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  western  commonwealths  of 
Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  increased  320  per  cent  in  the 
same  period.  Six  new  Western  states  were  added  to  the  Union 
in  the  decade  following  the  outbreak  of  the  second  war  with 
England:  Louisiana  (1812),  Indiana  (1816),  Mississippi  (1817), 
Illinois  (1818),  Alabama  (1819),  Missouri  (1821),  —  more  than 
had  been  admitted  since  the  formation  of  our  government,  and 
more  than  were  to  be  admitted  until  the  eve  of  the  Civil  War. 
The  new  West  was  rapidly  coming  to  be  a  power  to  be  reckoned 
with  in  national  politics.  By  the  apportionment  of  1820,  47  of 
the  213  congressmen  and  18  of  the  48  senators  came  from 
beyond  the  Alleghenies,  —  the  land  which  a  generation  before 
was,  in  the  language  of  Daniel  Webster,  "  a  fresh,  untouched, 
unbounded,  magnificent  wilderness." 

The  settlers  of  the  new  West  had  abundant  courage  but  little  338.  it  calls 
capital.    In  order  to  connect  their  rapidly  developing  region  £id  for  rts*1 
with  the  Atlantic  coast,  that  they  might  exchange  their  farm  development 
products  for  the  manufactures  of  the  eastern  factories  and  the 
imports  from  the  Old  World,  great  outlays  of  money  for  roads 
and  canals  were  needed.    The  national  government  was  asked 
to   contribute   to   these   improvements,  which   meant  not  the 
building  up  of  one  section  of  the  country  only,  but  the  general 
diffusion  of  prosperity,  the  strengthening  of  a  national  senti 
ment,  and  the  promise  of  a  united  people   to   resist  foreign 
attack  or  domestic  treachery.    President  Madison  in  his  last 
annual  message  to  Congress  (December,  1816)  urged  that  body 
to  turn  its  particular  attention  to   "  effectuating  a  system  of 
roads  and  canals  such  as  would  have  the  effect  of  drawing 
more  closely  together  every  part  of  our  country." 

A  few  days  later  John  C.  Calhoun,  an  enthusiastic  "  expan-  339.  cai- 
sionist "  member  from  South  Carolina,  pushed  a  bill  through 
Congress  devoting  to  internal   improvements  the   $1,500,000 


2sO 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


which  the  government  was  to  receive  as  a  bonus  for  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  second  National  Bank,  as  well  as  all  the  divi 
dends  accruing  to  the  government  on  its  stock  in  the  bank. 
Calhoun  urged  the  need  of  good  roads  for  transportation  of 
our  army  and  the  movement  of  our  commerce.  "  We  are  great, 
and  rapidly  (I  was  about  to  say,  fearfully)  growing,"  he  cried ; 
"  the  extent  of  our  country  exposes  us  to  the  greatest  of  all 
calamities  next  to  the  loss  of  liberty,  disunion.  .  .  .  Let  us 


View  of  Cincinnati  in  1825 

bind  the  republic  together  with  a  perfect  system  of  roads  and 
canals.  .  .  .    Let  us  conquer  space." 

340.  Failure        Calhoun's  Bonus  Bill  was  vetoed  by  President  Madison  on 

tionai  policy,  his  last  day  of  office  (March  3,  1817).    Not  that  Madison  was 

1825        opposed   to   spending  the   nation's   money  for  improving  the 

means  of  communication  with  the  West  (as  his  message  of 

the  previous  December  shows),  but  because  he  thought  that  the 

Constitution  needed  amending  in  order  to  give  Congress  this 

power.    Madison's  successor,  Monroe  (1817-1825),  was  also  of 

the  old  generation  of  Virginia  statesmen  who  had  done  so  much 


Sectional  Interests  •  251 

of  the  work  of  framing  our  Constitution,  and  he  too  cautiously 
advocated  an  amendment  empowering  Congress  to  make  the 
desired  improvements.  By  the  time  a  man  of  the  new  genera 
tion,  and  a  champion  of  the  "  nationalized  "  Republican  party, 
came  to  the  presidential  chair,  in  the  person  of  John  Quincy 
Adams  (1825),  the  favorable  moment  for  the  public  encourage 
ment  of  the  development  of  the  West  was  past.  In  vain  did 
Adams  seek  to  rouse  Congress  to  the  policy  which  Clay  and 
Calhoun  had  advocated  so  heartily  a  decade  before.  The 
manufacturing  North,  the  cotton-raising  South,  and  the  farm 
ing  and  wool-growing  West  had  discovered  that  their  interests 
were  mutually  antagonistic  ;  and  each  section  was  striving  (as 
we  shall  see  in  the  following  pages)  to  secure  legislation  by 
Congress  to  safeguard  its  own  interests.  The  "  era  of  good 
feeling  "  was  changing  into  an  epoch  of  bitter  sectional  strife. 

THE  FAVORITE  SONS 

If  we  contrast  the  decade  which  preceded  the  announcement  341.  con- 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  with  the  decade  which  followed  it,  this  Decades 


remarkable  fact  stands  out,  that  every  single  act  and  policy  of 
the  earlier  period  in  support  of  nationalism  —  the  increase  of  the 
army  and  navy,  the  recharter  of  the  Bank,  the  sale  of  public 
lands  on  liberal  terms,  the  expenditure  of  money  from  the  public 
treasury  for  internal  improvements,  the  increased  authority  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  the  high  tariff,  and  even  the  Monroe  Doc 
trine  itself  —  became  the  subject  of  violent  sectional  contro 
versies  in  the  later  period. 

The  rivalry  of  the  sections  first  showed  itself  in  the  fight  for  342.  The 
the  presidency  in  1824.    It  was  not  a  contest  of  parties  ;  for  since  oTth^East1 
the  fall  of  the  Federalists  in  1816  the  nationalized  Republican  South,  and' 

inr  6St 

party  had  stood  without  a  rival  in  the  field.  Monroe's  reelection 
in  1820  was  practically  unanimous.  But  in  1824  there  was  no 
single  candidate  acceptable  to  East,  West,  and  South.  Instead, 
there  was  a  group  of  remarkably  able  statesmen  who,  in  spite 


252  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

of  their  own  desire  to  cherish  the  broad  national  spirit  of  the 
second  decade  of  the  century,  found  themselves  drawn  year  by 
year  into  the  more  exclusive  service  of  their  sections. 
343.  John          New  England  was  represented  in  this  group  by  John  Quincy 
Adams',          Adams  and  Daniel  Webster.    The  former  was  one  of  the  best 
1767-1848        trained  statesmen  in  all  our  history.    He  was  the  son  of  the 
distinguished  patriot   and   Federalist   President,  John   Adams. 
As  a  boy  of  eleven  he  had  accompanied  his  father  on  a  diplo 
matic  mission  to  Paris  (1778),  and  during  the  next  forty  years 

had  served  his  country  in  the 
capacity  of  secretary,  minister, 
or  special  envoy  at  the  courts 
of  Russia,  Prussia,  the  Nether 
lands,  Sweden,  France,  and 
England.  He  had  served  as 
United  States  senator  from 
Massachusetts  for  ten  years, 
when  President  Monroe  called 
him,  in  1817,  to  the  first  place 
in  his  cabinet,  a  position  which 
yv  he  filled  with  great  success 
during  the  eight  years  of 

Monroe's  administration.   For 
John  Quincy  Adams 

all  his  cosmopolitan  experi 
ence,  Adams  remained  a  New  England  Puritan,  and  preserved 
to  the  end  of  his  career  the  noble  austerities  and  repelling  virtues 
of  the  Puritan,  —  unswerving  conscientiousness,  unsparing  self- 
judgment,  unflagging  industry,  unbending  dignity,  unyielding 
devotion  to  duty.  He  rose  before  daylight,  read  his  Bible  with 
the  regularity  of  an  orthodox  clergyman,  and  in  his  closely 
written  diary  of  a  dozen  volumes  recorded  the  affairs  of  his  soul 
as  faithfully  as  the  affairs  of  state. 

webste?niel       Daniel  Webster,   fifteen  years  Adams's  junior,  had  by  no 

1782-1852'       means  reached  the  latter 's  level  as  a  statesman  at  the  close  of 

Monroe's  administration.   He  had  neither  been  a  member  of  the 


Sectional  Interests  253 

cabinet  nor  filled  a  diplomatic  post.  The  son  of  a  sturdy  New 
Hampshire  farmer,  he  had  secured  a  college  education  at  Dart 
mouth,  at  some  sacrifice  to  his  family,  and  had  amply  justified 
their  faith  in  his  promise  by  a  brilliant  legal  career.  In  1813 
he  had  been  sent  to  Washington  as  congressman  from  a  New 
Hampshire  district.  A  few  years  later  he  moved  his  law  office 
to  Boston,  and  from  1823  to  the  middle  of  the  century  con 
tinued  almost  uninterruptedly  to  represent  the  people  of  Mas 
sachusetts  in  the  national  House  and  Senate.  By  his  famous 
plea  in  the  Dartmouth  College  case,  his  Plymouth  oration  on 
the  two-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims 
(1820),  and  his  speeches  in  Congress,  he  had  already  won  a 
national  reputation  as  an  orator  before  the  close  of  Monroe's 
administration.  When  it  was  known  that  Webster  was  to  speak, 
the  gallery  and  floor  of  the  Senate  chamber  would  be  crowded 
with  a  throng  eager  to  sit  or  stand  for  hours  under  the  spell  of 
his  sonorous  and  majestic  voice.  Like  Adams,  Webster  inher 
ited  and  appreciated  New  England's  traditions  of  learning,  and 
took  just  pride  in  the  contribution  of  its  Puritan  stock  to  the 
mental  and  moral  standards  of  our  country ;  but  he  was  not  a 
Puritan  in  temper  and  habits,  like  Adams,  who  wrote  himself 
down  in  his  diary  as  "  a  man  of  cold,  austere,  and  forbidding 
manners."  When  Webster  erred  it  was  rather  on  the  side  of 
conviviality  than  of  austerity. 

The  Middle  Atlantic  region  had  two  or  three  statesmen  of  345.  Albert 
first  rank,  besides  scores  of  politicians  who  were  contending  f^f^' 
for  political  influence.    Albert  Gallatin  of  Pennsylvania,  a  Swiss 
by  birth,  had  been  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  Jefferson 
and  Madison  (1801-1813),  had  been  with  Adams  and  Clay  on 
the  commission  which  negotiated  the  peace  with  England  in 
1814,  and  was  serving  as  minister  to  France  when  he  was  per 
suaded  to  come  home  to  take  part  in  the  campaign  of  1824. 

Rufus  King,  senator  from  New  York,  had,  in  his  younger  346.  Rufus 
days,  been  one  of  the  Massachusetts  delegates  to  the  Constitu-  ^£g>  I755~ 
tional  Convention  of  1787.  Three  times  since  1800  he  had 


254  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

been  candidate  for  President  or  Vice  President  on  the  Federalist 
ticket.  At  the  time  of  Monroe's  presidency  he  was  one  of  the 
most  eloquent  antislavery  orators  in  Congress. 

347.  Dewitt       De  Witt  Clinton  had  been  governor  of  New  York  for  nine 
xtfchSaB          terms,  and  in   1812,  as  candidate  of  the  Federalist  party,  he 

had  seriously  contested  Madison's  reelection.  His  monument 
is  the  great  Erie  Canal  (opened  in  1825),  which  runs  through 
the  Mohawk  valley  and,  connecting  with  the  Hudson,  unites  the 
waters  of  the  Great  Lakes  with  those  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
But  none  of  these  men  was  an  "  available  "  candidate  in  1824. 
Gallatin  was  a  nationalized  foreigner,  King  had  been  standard 
bearer  of  the  Federalists  in  their  humiliating  defeat  of  1816, 
and  Clinton,  besides  the  handicap  of  his  old  Federalist  connec 
tions,  was  too  much  engrossed  in  the  strife  of  factions  in  New 
York  state  to  emerge  as  a  national  figure. 

348.  William    •  Among  the  brilliant  group  of  orators  and  statesmen  from  the 
i77a-z834  Or<  '    South,  William  H.  Crawford  of  Georgia  and  John  C.  Calhoun 

of  South  Carolina  stood  preeminent.  Crawford  had  a  powerful 
mind  in  a  powerful  body.  He  entered  the  United  States  Sen 
ate  in  1807,  at  the  age  of  thirty-five,  was  made  minister  to 
France  in  1813,  and  was  in  the  cabinet  continuously  as  Secre 
tary  of  War  and  of  the  Treasury  from  1815  to  1825.  A  most 
accomplished  politician,  he  came  very  near  defeating  Monroe  for 
the  Republican  nomination  for  the  presidency  in  1816,  despite 
the  latter's  hearty  support  by  Madison.  Crawford  was  retained 
by  Monroe  as  the  head  of  the  Treasury  Department,  where 
he  won  from  so  high  an  authority  as  Gallatin  the  praise  of 
having  "  a  most  correct  judgment  and  inflexible  integrity." 

349.  john  c.        John  C.  Calhoun  probably  has  even  to-day  but  one  rival  in 
1782-1850         the  hearts  of  Southern  patriots,  —  the  gallant  warrior-gentleman, 

Robert  E.  Lee.  Calhoun,  just  past  thirty,  was  one  of  the  bril 
liant  group  of  "new  men"  in  the  Twelfth  Congress,  who  in 
their  national  enthusiasm  forced  Madison  to  declare  war  on  Eng 
land  in  1812,  and  followed  the  successful  conclusion  of  the  war 
with  the  liberal  legislation  on  army,  bank,  tariff,  and  internal 


John  C.  Calhoun 


255 


256  National  versiis  Sectional  Interests 

improvements  which  we  have  studied  in  the  preceding  chapter. 
Monroe  offered  Calhoun  the  War  portfolio  in  1817,  and,  like 
Adams  and  Crawford,  the  South  Carolinian  remained  in  the 
cabinet  during  both  of  Monroe's  terms.  Some  of  Calhoun's 
contemporaries  feared  that  "  the  lightning  glances  of  his  mind  " 
and  his  passion  for  national  expansion  sometimes  disturbed  his 
solid  judgment  in  these  early  years  ;  but  Adams,  who  sat  for 
eight  years  at  the  same  council  board  with  him,  described 
Calhoun  in  his  diary  as  "  fair  and  candid,  of  clear  and  quick 
understanding,  cool  self-possession,  enlarged  philosophical  views, 
and  ardent  patriotism." 

350.  Thomas       The  West  boasted  of  three  men  of  national  reputation  in 
i783-i858°n>       Benton,  Clay,  and  Jackson,  all  of  whom  had  emigrated  from 

the  South  Atlantic  States.  Thomas  Hart  Benton,  born  in  North 
Carolina  in  1782,  had  gone  west  in  early  life  to  help  build  up 
the  commonwealth  of  Tennessee ;  and,  following  the  impulse 
of  the  pioneer,  had  continued  farther  to  the  trans-Mississippi 
frontier.  In  1821  he  was  sent  by  the  new  state  of  Missouri  to 
the  Senate,  where  he  continued  for  thirty  years  to  plead  the 
cause  of  westward  expansion  with  an  almost  savage  enthusi 
asm.  He  denounced  the  "  surrender  of  Texas  " 1  to  Spain  in 
the  treaty  of  1819  with  all  the  zeal  of  an  ancient  prophet,  and 
foretold  the  day  when  the  valley  of  the  Columbia  River  should 
be  the  granary  of  China  and  Japan. 

351.  Henry          The  name  of  Henry  Clay  has  already  appeared  frequently 
1852 '  on  these  pages,  for  no  account  of  the  War  of  1812  and  the  sys 
tem  of  national  development  which  followed  could  be  written 
without  giving  Clay  the  most  conspicuous  place.    He   was  a 
born   leader  of    men,   adapting  his  genial   personality   to   the 
humblest  and  roughest  frontiersman  without  a  sign  of  conde 
scension,  and  meeting  the  lofty  demeanor  of  an  Adams  with 
an  easy  charm  of  manner.    When  still  a  young  law  student  of 

1  When  the  boundary  treaty  of  1819  was  concluded  (see  p.  240)  some  of  our 
statesmen  claimed,  but  without  right,  that  Texas,  being  a  part  of  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  territory,  was  "  sacrificed  "  or  «  surrendered  "  to  Spain. 


HENRY    CLAY 
Courtesy  of  the  Long  Island  Historical  Society 


Sectional  Interests  257 

nineteen  Clay  had  migrated  from  Virginia,  in  1796,  to  the  new 
state  of  Kentucky,  where  his  great  gifts  of  leadership  and  mar 
velous  oratory  won  for  him  an  election  to  the  United  States 
Senate  before  the  legal  age  of  thirty  years.  In  1 8 1 1  he  entered 
the  House,  and  as  Speaker  of  the  Twelfth  Congress  began  a 
career  of  leadership  in  American  politics  which  was  to  extend 
over  four  decades  to  his  death  in  1852.  If  Webster's  voice  was 
the  most  convincing  that  ever  sounded  in  the  halls  of  Congress, 
Henry  Clay's  was  the  most  winning.  He  spoke  to  the  hearts 
of  men.  He  was  not  merely  the  "  choice  "  of  his  supporters ; 
he  was  their  idol.  And  when  he  was  defeated  for  the  high  office 
of  President,  it  is  said  men  wept  like  children. 

Finally,  in  Andrew  Jackson  of  Tennessee  the  Southwest  had  352.  Andrew 
a  hero  of  the  Simon-pure  American  democracy.  Jackson  was  1757-1845 
born  of  Scotch-Irish  parentage  in  the  western  uplands  on  the 
border  of  the  Carolinas  in  1767.  He  joined  the  tide  of  emi 
gration  to  Tennessee,  where  his  energy,  pluck,  and  hard  sense 
gained  for  him  a  foremost  place  in  local  politics,  while  his 
prowess  as  an  Indian  fighter  won  him  a  generalship  in  the 
War  of  1812.  The  victory  of  New  Orleans  (1815)  made 
Jackson  the  most  conspicuous  soldier  of  the  republic,  and  the 
"  conquest  of  Florida  "  in  the  Seminole  War,  three  years  later, 
brought  him  before  the  cabinet  at  Washington  and  the  court  of 
Madrid  as  the  decisive  factor  in  the  long  negotiations  over  the 
Florida  territory.  Jackson  was  a  man  of  action,  not  words. 
His  bitter  rival,  Henry  Clay,  never  tired  of  calling  him  a  mere 
"  military  chieftain."  Away  back  in  Washington's  administra 
tion  Jackson  had  entered  Congress  from  the  new  state  of 
Tennessee  (1796)  in  his  backwoodsman's  dress,  "a  tall,  lank, 
uncouth-looking  personage,  with  long  locks  of  hair  hanging 
over  his  face,  and  a  cue  down  his  back  tied  in  an  eelskin." 
Jefferson,  who  was  president  of  the  Senate  when  Jackson  was 
a  member  of  that  body,  in  1797-1798,  said  that  he  had  often 
seen  this  violent  member  from  Tennessee  struggling  in  vain  to 
speak  on  the  floor,  his  voice  completely  choked  by  rage.  But 


258  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

Jackson  left  the  halls  of  Congress  in  1798,  not  to  return  for  a 
full  quarter  of  a  century,  —  and  then  crowned  with  the  laurels 
of  his  great  victories  and  already  the  choice  of  the  legislature 
of  his  state  for  President 

353.  Rivalry        Four  of  these   "  favorite  sons  "  of  the  various  sections  of 
voritesons"     the  country  were  rivals  for  the  presidency  in  1824,  —  General 

a"  Jackson>  Henry  Clay,  and  Monroe's  cabinet  officers  Adams 
and  Crawford.  During  the  whole  of  Monroe's  second  term 
these  men  wrere  laying  their  plans  to  gain  the  coveted  honor. 
In  those  days  the  great  national  nominating  conventions  which 
now  meet  in  the  early  summer  of  each  presidential  year,  to 
select  the  standard  bearers  of  the  party,  were  unknown.  The 
custom  since  John  Adams's  day  had  been  for  the  members  of 
each  party  in  Congress  to  assemble  in  a  caucus  (or  conference) 
and  pick  out  their  candidates  for  President  and  Vice  President. 
But  the  increasing  democratic  sentiment  of  the  country,  influ 
enced  largely  by  the  rise  of  the  new  West,  had  made  this  ex 
clusive  method  of  choosing  presidential  candidates  unpopular. 
The  people  at  large  felt  that  they  should  have  a  voice  in  the 
selection  as  well  as  in  the  election  of  a  President.  Therefore, 
although  Crawford  secured  the  support  of  the  congressional 
caucus,  the  candidates  of  the  other  sections  were  enthusiasti 
cally  nominated  by  state  legislatures  and  mass  meetings. 

354.  NO  pop-       It  was  the  first  popular  presidential  campaign  in  our  history, 
ular  choice 

for  President    abounding  in  personalities,  cartoons,  emblems,  banners,  songs, 

speeches,  and  dinners.  "  Old  Hickory  "  clubs  were  formed  for 
Jackson,  and  men  wore  black  silk  vests  with  his  portrait  stamped 
upon  them.  The  support  of  the  New  England  States  was 
pledged  to  Adams ;  Tennessee,  Alabama,  and  Pennsylvania 
declared  for  Jackson;  and  Clay  secured  the  legislatures  of 
Kentucky,  Missouri,  Ohio,  and  Louisiana.  In  New  York  there 
was  a  battle  royal,  resulting  in  the  distribution  of  the  36  elec 
toral  votes  of  the  state  among  the  four  candidates.  When  the 
vote  was  formally  counted  it  was  found  that  Jackson  had  99 
votes,  Adams  84,  Crawford  41,  and  Clay  37. 


Sectional  In terests  259 

As  no  candidate  had  received  the  majority  (more  than  half)  355.  Adams 
of  the  electoral  votes  required  by  the  Constitution  for  the  choice  House*  by  th 
of  a  President,  the  House  of  Representatives  had  to  select  from 
the  three  highest  names  on  the  list  (Twelfth  Amendment).  Clay, 
being  out  of  the  race,  decided  quite  naturally  to  throw  his  influ 
ence  on  the  side  of  Adams,  who  was  not,  like  Jackson,  his  rival  in 
the  West,  and  whose  political  views  were  much  closer  to  his  own 
on  such  questions  as  internal  improvements,  the  tariff,  the  Bank, 
and  other  points  of  the  "  American  System,"  than  were  those 
of  the  "  military  chieftain  "  Jackson.  Adams  was  chosen  by  the 
House,  and  immediately  offered  Clay  the  first  place  in  his  cabinet. 

The  Jackson  supporters  were  furious.    The  "  will  of  the  peo-  356.  Jackson 
pie "  had  been  defeated,  they  said.    The  House  was  morally  S^8^, 
bound,  they  claimed,  to  choose  the  man  who  had  the  greatest  campaign" 
number  of  electoral  and  popular  votes.    They  declared  that  the 
aristocratic  Adams  and  Henry  Clay,  "  the  Judas  of  the  West," 
had  entered  into  a  "  corrupt  bargain  "  to  keep  the  old  hero  of 
New  Orleans  out  of  the  honors  which  the  nation  had  clearly 
voted  him.    Jackson  appealed  from  Congress  to  the  people. 
He  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  and  with  an  able  corps  of 
managers  in  every  section  of  the  country  began  a  four  years' 
campaign  against  Adams,  Clay,  and  the  whole  "  dynasty  of  sec 
retaries,"  to  restore  the  government  of  the  American  republic  to 
the  ideals  of  its  founders  and  to  servants  of  the  people's  choice. 

AN  ERA  OF  HARD  FEELINGS 

"  Less  possessed  of  your  confidence  than  any  of  my  prede-  357.  Thedif- 
cessors,  I  am  deeply  conscious  that  I  shall  stand  more  and 
oftener  in  need  of  your  indulgence."    So  wrote  John  Quincy  Adams 
Adams  in  his  first  annual  message  to  Congress,  in  December, 
1825.    But  in  spite  of  this  gracious  invitation  to  Congress  to 
meet  him  halfway  in  the  harmonious  conduct  of  the  govern 
ment,  Adams  was,  destined  to  a  term  of  bitter  strife  and  cha 
grin.    The  charge  that  he  had  won  the  presidency  by  means  of 


260  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

a  "  corrupt  bargain  "  with  Henry  Clay  was  repeated  by  Jackson, 
and  used  by  shrewd  Jackson  managers  in  every  state  to  culti 
vate  opposition  to  the  administration.  More  than  a  third  of  the 
senators  voted  against  the  confirmation  of  Clay  as  Secretary 
of  State ;  and  John  C.  Calhoun  (who  had  been  overwhelm 
ingly  elected  Vice  President),  in  his  capacity  of  president  of  the 
Senate,  appointed  committees  hostile  to  Adams's  policy,  and 
refused  to  call  to  order  members  who  raved  against  the  Presi 
dent  in  almost  scurrilous  language.  The  administration  party 
elected  its  Speaker  of  the  House  by  a  margin  of  only  five  votes. 

358.  The  The  reason  why  one  of  the  most  upright  and  patriotic  of 
sectional  sen-  our  Presidents  found  himself  antagonized  and  thwarted  at  every 

turn  in  his  administration  was  simply  this :  Adams  attempted 
to  preserve  the  broad  national  idea  at  a  time  when  the  sections 
were  growing  keenly  conscious  of  their  conflicting  interests. 
With  our  present  rapid  means  of  transportation  and  communi 
cation  by  the  railroad,  the  telegraph,  and  the  telephone ;  with 
our  tremendous  interstate  commerce  binding  section  to  section ; 
with  our  network  of  banks  and  brokerage  houses  maintaining 
financial  equilibrium  between  the  different  parts  of  our  country, 
we  find  it  hard  to  realize  the  isolation  and  the  consequent  an 
tagonism  of  the  various  geographical  sections  in  the  early  and 
middle  years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  wonder  really  is 
that  our  country  held  together  as  well  as  it  did,  and  not  that  it 
tended  to  separate  into  sections.  For  in  spite  of  the  temporary 
unifying  effect  of  the  second  war  with  Great  Britain,  it  was  not 
until  the  crisis  of  the  great  Civil  War  that  the  United  States 
became  an  assured  Union. 

359.  The  in-        We  shall  better  appreciate  the  United  States  of  1821;  if  we 
fluence  of 

New  England  think  of  it  as  a  huge  geographical  framework  containing  several 

distinct  communities  with  widely  differing  social  and  industrial 
interests.  New  England,  with  its  two  full  centuries  of  Puritan 
history  behind  it,  though  at  last  outgrowing  its  religious  bigotry, 
was  still  a  very  conservative  region  socially  and  politically.  It 
had  been  the  last  stronghold  of  Federalism,  which  stood,  in 


Sectional  Interests  261 

John  Adams's  phrase,  for  government  by  "  the  rich,  the  well 
born,  and  the  able."  It  had  never  made  the  ballot  common  or 
office  cheap.  As  its  farming  population  was  attracted  westward 
to  the  rich  lands  of  the  Ohio  valley,1  power  was  even  more  con 
solidated  in  the  hands  of  the  rich  merchant  and  manufacturing 
classes  on  the  seaboard.  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  eastern 
Pennsylvania,  without  sharing  the  religious  prejudices  of  New 
England,  wefe  generally  allied  with  that  region  in  their  industrial 
and  mercantile  interests. 

To  New  England's  aristocracy  of  merchants  the  South  opposed  360.  The 
an  aristocracy  of  planters.    The  cultivation  of  cotton,  increasing  aristocracy  » 
as  we  have  seen  at  a  marvelous  rate  in  the  early  years  of  the  in  the  South 
nineteenth  century,  was  rapidly  fixing  on  the  South   an  institu 
tion  which  was  fraught  with  the  gravest  consequences  for  our 
country's  history,  —  the  institution  of  negro  slavery.    We  shall 
discuss  the  political  and  ethical  consequences  of  slavery  in  later 
chapters.    Here  we  note  simply  the  economic  fact  that  the  in 
crease  of  negro  slave  labor  in  the  South  made  free  white  labor 
impracticable,  and  with  it  shut  out  the  possibility  of  the  develop 
ment  of  manufactures,  which,  since  the  second  war  with  Eng 
land,  had  been  thriving  in  the  Northern  states. 

A  third  distinct  section  of  our  country,  growing  every  year  361.  The 
more  conscious  of  its  peculiar  temper  and  its  peculiar  needs,  was  munity  of  The 
the   West.    To  the  merchant  aristocracy  of  the  East  and  the  West 
planter  aristocracy  of  the  South,  the  West  opposed  the  rugged 
democracy  of  a  pioneer  community.    Men  were  scarce  in  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  the  Mississippi  territory  in 
the  early  days,  and  every  man  counted.    The  artificial  distinc 
tions  of  name  and  education  weighed  but  little  compared  with 
the  natural  distinctions  of  brawn  and  wit.    The  pioneer  was 
rough  and  elemental,  hardy  and  self-reliant.    He  made  his  way 
with  knife  and  gun.    He  usually  drank  hard  and  talked  loudly. 

1  The  influence  of  New  England  on  the  West  may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  in 
1830  thirty-one  members  of  Congress  were  natives  of  Connecticut,  though  the 
state  itself  sent  but  five  members. 


262  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

A  convention  at  Knoxville  for  framing  the  constitution  of  Ten 
nessee  adopted  the  rule  that  any  man  who  digressed  from  the 
discussion  "  in  order  to  fall  upon  the  person  of  another  mem 
ber  "  should  be  suppressed  by  the  chair.  Justice  was  summary. 
The  feud  and  the  duel  often  replaced  the  tedious  processes  of 
the  courts.  The  test  of  a  man  was  what  he  could  do,  not  how 
much  he  knew.  If  he  could  manage  a  wild  horse,  drive  an  ax 
deep,  and  repel  an  Indian  raid,  he  was  the  right  kind  of  Ameri 
can  ;  and  his  vote  and  opinion  were  worth  as  much  in  this 
democratic  country  as  those  of  any  merchant  in  Boston. 

362.  The  The  people  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  had  all  inherited  Euro- 
racy               pean  ideas  of  rank.    They  had,  to  be  sure,  developed  a  political 

democracy,  but  not  a  social  one.  They  believed  in  a  govern 
ment  for  the  people  and  perhaps  0/"the  people  —  but  not  by  the 
people.  In  Washington's  day  only  some  120,000  out  of  a  popu 
lation  of  nearly  4,000,000  had  the  right  to  vote,  and  religious 
or  property  qualifications  were  attached  to  the  offices  of  gov 
ernment  in  almost  all  the  states.  But  the  new  states  of  the 
.  West  were  all  for  manhood  suffrage,  without  regard  to  birth, 
profession,  or  wealth.  The  time  had  now  come  when  these 
states,  with  their  immense  growth  in  population,  were  conscious 
of  their  influence  over  the  national  government.  By  1825  the 
states  west  of  the  Alleghenies  sent  47  members  to  a  House  of 
213,  and  elected  18  out  of  48  United  States  senators.  "It  is 
true,"  cried  Benton  in  one  of  his  powerful  pleas  for  the  inter 
ests  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  "  that  Western  men  had  some 
share  in  the  destinies  of  this  republic." 

363.  The  in-       The  events  of  the  period  which  we   are  studying  can  be 
evitable  con 
flict  between  understood  only  in  the  light  of  this  sectional  rivalry.    The  up- 

8ect?onaian<  rignt  Adams  was  subjected  to  petty  opposition  all  through  his 
term  because  he  was  unable  to  see  or  unwilling  to  encourage 
such  rivalry.  While  his  opponents  were  busy  building  up  their 
party  machine,  Adams  steadily  refused  to  use  his  high  position 
for  such  a  purpose.  He  would  not  remove  a  man  from  office 
for  voting  against  the  administration ;  he  would  not  appoint  a 


Sectional  Interests  263 

man  to  office  as  a  reward  for  services  to  the  party.  He  declined 
to  exchange  the  responsibilities  of  the  statesman  for  the  in 
trigues  of  the  politician.  He  held  to  the  policy  of  a  strong 
national  government  controlling  the  interests  of  all  parts  of  the 
country,  just  at  the  moment  when  these  various  parts  were 
becoming  convinced  that  in  order  to  secure  their  interests  they 
must  take  the  direction  of  affairs  into  their  own  hands,  or  at 
least  have  some  effective  check  on  the  central  government. 

The  affair  of  the  Panama  Congress  is  an  excellent  illustration  364.  The 
of  the  frustration  of  the  national  ideas  of  Adams  and  Clay  by  ^sTJiSas)11 

a  sectional  interest.    The  newly  liberated  republics  of  Mexico,  reveals  sec- 

•'  '   tional  jeal- 

Colombia,  and  Central  America,  whose  independence  the  United  ousy 

States  had  guaranteed  in  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  decided  to  hold 
a  congress  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  for  the  purpose  of 
forming  a  league  to  oppose  the  aggressions  of  Spain  or  any 
other  European  nation.  A  courteous  invitation  was  sent  to  the 
United  States  in  the  autumn  of  1825  to  participate  in  this  con 
gress,  and  Adams  and  Clay,  both  ardent  nationalists  and  expan 
sionists,  were  in  favor  of  accepting.  But  the  slaveholding  states 
of  the  South  saw  in  the  congress  a  grave  danger.  The  revolt 
of  the  Spanish  colonies  had  been  accompanied  by  a  movement 
in  favor  of  slave  emancipation.  If  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  were 
added  to  the  new  group  of  republics,  it  would  mean  the  libera 
tion  of  the  slaves  of  those  islands.  If  Haiti,  already  a  free  negro 
republic,  were  admitted  to  the  congress,  it  would  sanction  the 
liberation  of  the  slave,  and  we  should  be  logically  forced  to 
welcome  the  ministers  of  the  negro  republic  to  our  country. 

The  Southern  orators  in  Congress  were  grimly  determined  365.  Fear  of 
that  no  such  thing  should  happen.    "  The  peace  of  eleven  states  f 
of  this  Union,"  said  one,  "will  not  permit  black  consuls  and  Soutl1 
ambassadors  to  establish  themselves  in  our  cities  and  parade 
through  our  country,  and  give  their  fellow  blacks  in  the  United 
States  proof  in  hand  of  the  honors  which  await  them  for  a 
like  successful  insurrection  on  their  part."    After  a  long  and 
bitter  debate  the  names  of  the  two  envoys  whom  Adams  had 


264 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


366.  Failure 
of  the"  Amer 
ican  policy  " 
of  internal 
improvements 
at  national 
expense 


367.  The 
state  of 
Georgia  suc 
cessfully 
defies  the  ad 
ministration 


appointed  to  represent  us  at  the  Panama  Congress  were  con 
firmed  in  the  Senate  by  the  close  vote  of  24  to  19.  But  it  was 
a  fruitless  victory  for  Adams  and  Clay.  One  of  the  envoys  died 
on  the  way  to  Panama,  and  the  other  reached  his  destination 
only  to  find  the  congress  adjourned. 

The  Adams-Clay  policy  in  regard  to  internal  improvements 
at  national  expense  met  the  same  sectional  opposition.  The 
President  praised  the  spirit  of  New  York  state  in  complet 
ing  the  Erie  Canal  (1825),  and  tried  to  stimulate  Congress  by 
this  example  to  the  "  accomplishment  of  works  important  to 

the  whole  country,  to 
which  neither  the  au 
thority  nor  the  resources 
of  any  one  state  could 
be  adequate."  But  the 
tide  of  opinion  was  run 
ning  strongly  against 
him.  The  West  replied, 
Let  the  government  give 
us  the  lands  which  are 
now  being  bought  up  by 
Eastern  speculators,  and 
we  will  take  care  of  our 


The  Cession  of  Indian  Lands  in  Georgia 


own  development.  And  the  South  said,  Let  the  government  re 
duce  the  tariff  duties  which  are  enriching  the  Northern  merchants 
at  our  expense,  and  it  will  not  have  so  much  money  to  spend 
"  in  charity  "  on  roads  and  canals. 

Even  a  single  state  defied  the  national  policy  of  the  adminis 
tration.  Georgia  had  for  several  years  been  hindered  in  its  de 
velopment  by  the  presence  of  the  large  and  powerful  nations 
of  Creek  and  Cherokee  Indians  on  its  fertile  soil.  The  United 
States  had  promised  to  remove  these  Indians  as  early  as  1802, 
but  they  were  still  there  when  Adams  became  President  in  1825. 
Clay  negotiated  a  treaty  with  the  Indians,  giving  them  the  occu 
pancy  of  the  land  till  1827.  But  Governor  Troup  of  Georgia 


Sectional  Interests  265 

had  already  begun  to  survey  the  lands  as  state  property.  Adams 
warned  the  governor  against  interfering  with  "  the  faith  of  the 
nation"  toward  the  Indians;  but  Troup  replied  that  Georgia 
was  "  sovereign  on  her  own  soil,"  and  warned  the  Secretary  of 
War  that  he  would  "  resist  by  force  the  first  act  of  hostility  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States,  the  unblushing  ally  of  the  savages." 
The  national  government  had  been  petitioned,  reprimanded,  and 
denounced  before.  There  had  been  threats  on  the  part  of  the 
states  to  nullify  its  laws  and  even  to  secede  from  its  jurisdiction. 
But  never  till  now  had  a  state  dared  to  defy  the  government 
at  Washington  as  a  "  public  enemy."  To  Adams's  chagrin  the 
Senate  refused  to  support  him  in  forcing  Georgia  to  obedience, 
and  Governor  Troup  proceeded  with  his  surveys. 

These  examples   of  the  Panama  fiasco,  the  failure   of  the  368.  The 
policy  of  internal  improvements,  and  the  successful  defiance  of 


the  government  by  the  state  of  Georgia  show  how  rapidly  sec-  arates  into 

two  wings 
tional  interests  were  replacing  the  national  enthusiasm  of  the 

two  previous  administrations.  There  was  as  yet  no  new  party 
formed,  but  the  two  wings  of  the  Republican  party  drew  so  far 
apart  that  new  names  became  necessary  to  denote  them.  The 
supporters  of  the  policy  of  Adams  and  Clay  were  called  Na 
tional-Republicans  ;  and  the  opposition  forces,  led  by  Jackson, 
Calhoun,  and  Crawford,  revived  the  original  party  name  of 
Democratic-Republicans.  In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  see  how 
these  two  factions  of  the  Republican  party  developed  into  the 
two  new  parties  of  Whigs  and  Democrats,  —  the  former  still  sup 
porting  the  national  ideas  of  Adams,  Clay,  and  Webster  ;  the 
latter  inclining  more  and  more  to  the  theory  of  "  states  rights  " 
and  the  strict  limitation  of  the  national  government  to  the  pow 
ers  specified  in  the  Constitution. 

The  failure  of  the  National-Republican  policy  of  government  369.  Signifl 
aid  for  improvements  in  transportation  is  seen  in  its  true  signifi- 


cance  when  we  remember  that  it  was  iust  at  this  epoch  that  the  national 

policy 
great  railway  systems  of  our  country  were  begun.    The  Mo 

hawk  and  Hudson  Railway  (parent  of  the  New  York  Central) 


266  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

was  started  in  1825,  the  Boston  and  Albany  and  the  Pennsyl 
vania  in  1827,  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  in  1828.  These  rail 
ways  soon  superseded  the  canals  as  routes  of  transportation,  and 
have  now  grown  into  several  vast  systems  of  trunk  lines  and 
branches,  with  nearly  250,000  miles  of  track,  —  enough  to 
circle  the  earth  ten  times.  They  are  owned  and  managed  by 
private  corporations,  chartered  by  the  state  governments.  The 
Pennsylvania  system,  for  example,  has  between  thirty  and  forty 
charters  granted  by  a  dozen  states.  Who  can  calculate  the 
effect  on  the  economic  and  political  history  of  our  country  if  the 
construction  and  management  of  railways  had  been  adopted  as 
part  of  the  national  government's  business  in  John  Quincy 
Adams's  administration,  and  if  Congress  now  had  the  same 
control  over  the  steel  lines  of  land  transportation  that  it  has 
over  the  rivers  and  harbors  of  the  United  States ! 

370.  The  A  newspaper  editor  called  on  Adams  one  day  to  expostulate 

Andrew  jack-  w^tn  him  ^or  allowing  men  to  continue  to  serve  in  the  customs 
son,  1828  ancj  pOSt-office  departments  who  were  hostile  to  the  administra 
tion.  When  he  heard  the  President's  final  reiteration  of  his 
principle  not  to  turn  out  of  office  any  efficient  servant  on  the 
ground  of  his  political  opinions,  he  bowed  politely  and  assured 
the  President  that  the  result  of  his  policy  would  be  that  he 
himself  would  be  turned  out  of  office  as  soon  as  his  term  was 
over.  The  editor's  prophecy  proved  correct.  Adams  was 
beaten  by  Jackson  in  1828  by  the  decisive  majority  of  178 
votes  to  83  in  the  electoral  college,  carrying  only  New  England 
and  a  part  of  the  Middle  Atlantic  States.  Jackson's  victory  was 
hailed  as  the  triumph  of  democratic  principles  and  an  assertion 
of  "  the  people's  right  to  govern  themselves."  In  place  of  the 
trained  statesman  and  diplomat  the  people  called  to  the  highest 
office  in  the  land  a  frontiersman  and  soldier,  a  man  uncontrolled 
in  his  passions,  inflexible  in  his  prejudices,  hasty  and  erratic  in 
his  opinions,  tenacious  of  his  authority ;  a  man  who  often  be 
lieved  that  he  was  right  with  such  intensity  that  he  thought  all 
who  differed  from  him  must  be  either  fools  or  knaves. 


Sectional  Interests  267 

Adams  retired  willingly  from  the  office  in  which  he  had  been  371.  Presi- 
continually  harassed  for  four  years.  He  afterwards  entered  the  ieegacy 
House  of  Representatives,  where  he  served  his  country  nobly 
for  almost  a  quarter  of  a  century,  winning  such  reputation  by 
his  antislavery  speeches  that  he  was  called  "  the  old  man  elo 
quent  "  of  the  House'  In  leaving  the  presidency  he  bequeathed 
to  Jackson,  as  a  result  of  the  "  era  of  hard  feelings,"  a  most  dif 
ficult  problem  and  a  most  dangerous  situation.  The  state  of 
South  Carolina  was  on  the  verge  of  revolt  against  the  national 
government  over  the  question  of  the  tariff.  To  the  explanation 
of  this  situation  we  must  now  turn. 


THE  "  TARIFF  OF  ABOMINATIONS  " 

The  tariff  is  a  list  of  taxes  levied  by  Congress  on  goods  im-  372.  The 
ported  into  this  country.  The  money  thus  collected  is  called  revenue1 
customs  duties.  Foreign  goods  can  be  lawfully  landed  only  at 
those  ports,  called  "  ports  of  entry,"  where  customs  officers  of 
the  United  States  are  stationed  to  collect  the  duties  according 
to  the  tariff  rates.  From  the  very  beginning  of  its  existence  the 
United  States  has  employed  this  method  of  raising  a  large  part 
of  the  revenue  necessary  to  pay  its  expenses.  In  the  year  1908, 
for  example,  our  imports  amounted  to  the  immense  sum  of 
$1,180,000,000.  Over  half  this  amount  was  in  dutiable  goods 
($657,000,000),  and,  as  the  tariff  rates  averaged  over  45  per 
cent,  some  $290,000,000  were  collected  by  the  government 
from  this  source. 

But  besides  providing  an  income  for  the  government,  the  373.  The 
tariff  has  another  function  quite  as  important.  When  levied 
upon  imported  goods  which  compete  with  those  raised  or  manu 
factured  in  our  own  country,  it  enables  the  American  producer  to 
charge  a  higher  price  .for  his  commodity.  For  example,  a  high 
rate  of  duty  is  levied  on  woolens  imported  from  England.  The 
American  manufacturer  of  woolens,  then,  can  fix  his  price  at  the 
level  of  the  English  price,  plus  the  cost  of  transportation  from 


268  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

England,  plus  the  duty.  In  fact,  some  industries  in  our  country, 
like  the  iron  and  steel  manufactures,  are  so  highly  "pro 
tected  "  by  the  tariff  that  they  can  and  do  sell  their  products  to 
foreign  nations  at  a  lower  price  than  they  sell  them  at  home. 

374.  con-  No  subject  has  been  of  more  constant  interest  to  our  legisla- 
flicting  views  -11  i     • 

on  the  tariff     tors  than  the  tariff.    Scarcely  a  ten-year  period  has  passed  since 

the  foundation  of  our  national  government  without  the  introduc 
tion  of  a  new  tariff  bill  into  Congress.  One  party  has  main 
tained  that  a  tariff  should  be  laid  for  the  sake  of  a  revenue  only, 
and  largely  on  goods  (like  silks,  coffee,  rubber,  spices)  which  are 
not  produced  in  America,  and  hence  cannot  enrich  the  Ameri 
can  manufacturer  by  enabling  him  to  charge  high  prices.  The 
other  party  has  stood  for  a  "  protective  tariff "  levied  on  im 
ports  (like  cottons,  woolens,  glass,  iron,  leather)  which  do  come 
into  competition  with  American  manufactures.  The  revenue-tariff 
men  claim  that  the  Constitution  nowhere  gives  Congress  the  right 
to  show  favor  to  certain  industries  in  this  country  by  taxing  their 
foreign  competitors ;  while  the  protective-tariff  men  argue  that 
as  guardian  of  the  general  welfare  of  the  country  Congress  has 
the  duty  of  helping  to  build  up  our  "  infant  industries  "  and  of 
protecting  the  American  workingman  from  the  competition  of 
the  poorly  paid  labor  of  Europe.  The  arguments  on  both  sides 
are  many  and  varied.  The  revenue  theory  appeals  more  gen 
erally  to  the  trained  economic  student,  but  the  protective  theory 
has  always  been  more  popular  because  it  has  been  made  to 
appear  more  patriotic.  "  American  goods  for  Americans,"  "  the 
encouragement  of  our  infant  industries,"  "  the  protection  of 
American  labor,"  "  the  full  dinner  pail,"  are  phrases  which  have 
commended  the  protective  tariff  to  the  voters  of  this  country. 

375.  Econom-       We  have  already  noticed  (p.  190)  the  arguments  of  Alexan- 
due  to  foreign  der  Hamilton,  our  first  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  for  establish- 

inS  the  moderate  tariff  of  less  than  10  per  cent  in  1791.  The 
United  States  was  then  a  country  of  farmers  and  merchants, 
and  our  shipping  increased  tremendously  when  the  long  war 
between  England  and  the  French  Republic  (1793-1802)  threw 


Sectional  Interests  269 

the  ocean  trade  into  the  hands  of  neutrals.  But  when  we  our 
selves  were  drawn  into  the  struggle  between  Napoleon  and 
Great  Britain,  and  our  shipping  was  destroyed  by  embargoes, 
nonintercourse,  and  war  (1807-1815),  the  merchants  of  the 
country  began  to  put  their  capital  into  manufactures.  Cotton, 
woolen,  and  paper  mills,  tanneries,  furniture  factories,  iron 
forges,  glass  and  pottery  works  sprang  up.  At  the  close  of  the 
war  with  England  (1815)  there  was  close  to  $100,000,000 
invested  in  manufacturing  industries  in  this  country,  giving 
employment  to  200,000  workers. 

Just  at  the  same  moment  the  return  of  universal  peace  in  376.  British 
Europe  found  Great  Britain  with  an  immense  amount  of  manu-  in^anufac1- 
factured  goods  on  her  hands,  which  had  accumulated  while  the  tures 
ports  of  the  Continent  were  closed  to  her  commerce  by  Napo 
leon's  decrees  (p.  213).    These  goods  Great  Britain  proceeded 
to  "  dump "  on  the  United  States  at  low  prices,  to  glut  our 
markets,  and,  as  Lord  Brougham  put  it,  "  to  stifle  in  the  cra 
dle  those  rising  manufactures  in  the  United  States  which  the 
war  had  forced  into  existence."    In  the  single  year  of  1816, 
$18,000,000  worth  of  goods  were  sent  over  to  this  country. 

Hatred  of  England  and  patriotic  pride  in  our  own  new  indus-  377.  The 
tries,  confidence  in  our  destiny  as  a  great  manufacturing  people,  tanff  of  lSl6 
the  self-interest  of  the  manufacturers,  and  the  conviction  that 
"  to  be  independent  for  the  comforts  of  life,"  as  Thomas  Jeffer 
son  said,  "  we  must  fabricate  them  ourselves,  putting  manufac 
tures  by  the  side  of  agriculture,"  —  all  combined  to  cause  the 
passage  in  1816  of  a  tariff  bill  which  not  only  continued  the 
high  duties  levied  for  the  extraordinary  war  expenses  in  1812, 
but  even  added  certain  protective  duties,  raising  the  general 
tariff  average  from  15  per  cent  to  20  per  cent.  All  sections  of 
our  country  contributed  to  the  passage  of  this  bill  (see  map, 
p.  272),  for,  although  less  than  5  per  cent  of  the  manufactures 
of  the  country  were  in  the  states  south  of  Virginia  in  1816, 
nevertheless  those  states  hoped  to  build  up  mills  and  factories 
like  those  in  the  North. 


2/o  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

378.  The  But  the  tariff  of  1816  did  not  stop  the  flood  of  importations 
tariffofVie834    from  England,  and  the  manufacturers  in  the  Northern  states 

begged  Congress  to  save  them  from  ruin  by  laying  still  higher 
protective  duties.  Tariff  bills  increasing  the  rates  were  intro 
duced  into  the  House  in  1820,  1821,  and  1823,  but  it  was  not 
till  1824  that  a  new  tariff  passed  the  House  by  the  narrow 
majority  of  107  to  102  votes,  and  the  Senate  by  almost  as  slim 
a  margin.  The  tariff  of  1824  raised  the  average  duty  from  20 
per  cent  to  36  per  cent.  Since  our  revenues  from  the  tariff  of 
1816  were  more  than  ample  for  running  the  government,  and 
a  large  surplus  was  piling  up  in  the  treasury,  this  additional 
tariff  of  1824  was  purely  "  protective."  And  more  than  that,  it 
was  purely  sectional,  only  three  votes  being  cast  for  it  south  of 
the  Potomac  and  Cumberland  rivers. 

379.  Anti-  For  the  South  had  discovered  in  the  years  since  1816  that  it 
ment  develops  was  not  destined  to  become  a  manufacturing  region  and  thus  to 
m  the  south    s]iare  'm  the  benefits  of  a  protective  tariff.  The  extension  of  the 

cotton  area  to  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana,  and  the  im 
mense  leap  in  cotton  exportation  from  60,000,000  pounds  in 
1816  to  200,000,000  pounds  in  1824,  made  it  certain  that 
the  South  would  continue  to  devote  itself  to  the  production 
of  this  agricultural  staple  by  slave  labor.  Without  manufac 
tures,  then,  or  hope  of  manufactures,  the  South  saw  itself 
taxed  by  the  tariff  to  support  the  mills  and  factories  of  the 
North.  The  price  of  raw  cotton  was  constantly  falling,  owing 
to  the  great  increase  of  the  crop,  and  the  cost  of  manufac 
tured  goods  for  which  the  South  exchanged  its  cotton  was 
constantly  rising,  owing  to  the  increasing  tariff.  That  the  tariff 
made  wages  high  was  no  comfort  for  the  Southern  planter, 
because  he  did  not  pay  wages.  He  had  to  buy  food  and 
clothing  for  his  slaves,  and  the  tariff  raised  the  price  of  these 
necessities  so  high  that  John  Randolph  wittily  said  that  unless 
the  rates  were  lowered  in  a  short  time,  instead  of  the  masters 
advertising  for  fugitive  slaves,  the  South  would  see  the  slaves 
searching  for  their  fugitive  masters. 


Sectional  Interests  271 

Under  this  economic  pressure  the  South,  in  spite  of  its  votes  380.  The 
for  the  tariff  of  1816,  now  challenged  the  right  of  Congress  to  tests  against 
levy  a  protective  tariff  at  all.    The  Constitution  gave  Congress  J£j|tarifl  of 
the  right  to  raise  a  revenue,  the  objectors  said,  but  not  to  levy 
a  tax  on  the  industries  of  one  part  of  the  country  to  protect  the 
industries  of  another  part.    The  North,  with  its  system  of  free 
labor  and  small  farms,  inviting  industry  at  home  and  immigration 
from  abroad,  was  rapidly  outgrowing  the  South  in  population. 
Hence  its  majority  was  constantly  increasing  in  the  House  of 
Representatives.    If  the  Northern  majority  in  Congress  were 
to  be  allowed  to  pass  measure  after  measure  for  the  benefit  of 
their  own  section,  the  South  would  be  "  reduced  to  the  condi 
tion  of  a  subject  province." 

The  contest  entered  an  acute  stage  when  a  still  higher  pro-  381.  Higher 
tective  tariff  was  demanded  by  the  Northern  woolen  and  iron 


manufacturers  in  1827,  and  the  demand  was  supported  by  a  mandedby 

the  North, 
protectionist  congress  held  at  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania,  in  the  1827 

following  summer.  The  South  was  violent  in  protest.  "  Have 
you  calculated,"  said  a  memorial  to  Congress  for  the  Charles 
ton  Chamber  of  Commerce,  "  how  far  the  patience  of  the 
South  exceeds  their  indignation,  and  at  what  precise  point 
resistance  may  begin  and  submission  end  ?  "  "  Let  New  Eng 
land  beware  how  she  imitates  the  Old  England  !  "  was  the 
ominous  toast  given  by  C.  C.  Pinckney  at  a  Southern  banquet  ; 
while  Thomas  Cooper,  president  of  South  Carolina  College,  de 
clared  in  a  fiery  speech  that  when  the  "  Massachusetts  lords  of 
the  spinning  jenny  and  peers  of  the  loom  "  presumed  by  virtue 
of  their  majority  in  Congress  to  tax  the  South,  it  was  "  high 
time  to  calculate  the  value  of  the  Union." 

The  Southerners  were  not  strong  enough  to  keep  a  new  high  332.  The 
tariff  bill  out  of  Congress  in  1828,  but  they  resorted  to  a  shrewd  ^mina* 
trick  to  defeat  it.    Instead  of  seeking  to  lower  the  tariff  rates  tions,"  1828 
proposed,  they  joined  with  the  Western  farmers  in  greatly  in 
creasing  them.    A  presidential  election  was  approaching,  and 
the  South  appealed  to  the  large  anti-Adams  sentiment  to  frame 


2/2 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


a  tariff  bill  so  preposterous  that  New  England  would  reject  it, 
and  so  bring  dishonor  and  defeat  upon  Adams's  cause.  For 
example,  New  England  wanted  a  high  duty  on  manufactured 
woolens  to  exclude  English  goods,  but  at  the  same  time  it 
wanted  cheap  raw  wool  for  its  factories.  It  wanted  a  high  duty 
on  cordage  to  protect  its  shipbuilding  industries,  but  it  wanted 
cheap  raw  hemp  for  its  ropewalks.  It  wanted  a  high  duty  on 
iron  manufactures,  but  cheap  pig  iron  for  its  forges.  All  New 


1816 


1828 


The  Vote  on  the  Tariff  Bills  of  1816  and  1828 

England's  demands  for  protection  to  manufactures  were  granted 
in  the  bill,  but  their  benefits  were  largely  neutralized  by  the 
addition  of  high  duties  on  raw  wool  to  please  the  sheep  raisers 
of  Ohio,  on  hemp  to  satisfy  the  farmers  of  Kentucky,  and  on  pig 
iron  to  conciliate  the  miners  of  Pennsylvania.  In  spite  of  this 
shrewd  plan  of  the  South  to  match  the  West  against  New  Eng 
land,  and  thus  to  please  nobody  by  pleasing  everybody,  the  fan 
tastic  bill  passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of  105  to  94,  the  Senate 
by  a  vote  of  26  to  21,  and  became  a  law  by  President  Adams's 
signature  (May  19,  1828). 


Sectional  Interests 


273 


The  "  Tariff  of  Abominations,"  as  this  bill  was  called,  was  383.  Ex- 
one  of  the  most  outrageous  pieces  of  legislation  ever  passed  by  JatToVfn  tie 

Congress.  It  was  South 
a  low  political  job, 
which,  as  Randolph 
said,  "  had  to  do 
with  no  manufac 
tures  except  the 
manufacture  of  a 
President."  It  was 
not  even  (like  the 
bill  of  1824)  the 
honest  expression 
of  a  section  of 
the  country.  The 
South  was  furious 
at  the  failure  to 
defeat  high  tariff. 
Flags  were  flown 
at  half-mast  in 
Charleston.  Ora 
tors  advised  boy 
cotting  all  trade 
with  the  protected 
states,  and  even  ad 
vocated  the  resig 
nation  of  the 
Southern  members 
from  Congress. 
Senator  Hayne 
of  South  Carolina 
wrote  to  Jackson 
that  nineteen  twentieths  of  the  men  of  his  state  were  convinced 
that  the  protective  tariff  would  ruin  the  South  and  destroy  the 
Union.  "  We  are  insulted,  proscribed,  and  put  to  the  ban," 


EXPOSITION 

REPORTED 

BY  THE  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 

or  THE 
HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

ON 

THE  TARIFF; 

READ  AND  ORDERED  TO  BE  PRINTED, 

Dec.  19fA,  1828. 


COLUMBIA,  9.  C. 

t>.  1».  (IMS,  STATt  PRUTER. 


Facsimile  of  the  Title-page  of  Calhoun's 
"  Exposition  and  Protest " 


274  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

cried  Randolph ;  if  "we  do  not  act,  we  are  bastard  sons  of 
the  fathers  who  achieved  the  Revolution !  "  North  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi  joined  in  the  protest. 

384.  cai-  Vice  President  Calhoun,  on  his  return  from  Washington  to 
poStion"'^i8a8  Charleston,  wrote  and  presented  to  the  legislature  of  his  state 

the  famous  attack  on  the  "  Tariff  of  Abominations,"  called  the 
"  Exposition  and  Protest."  Calhoun  maintained,  first,  that  the 
tariff  act  of  1828  was  unconstitutional,  since  Congress  had 
the  power  to  lay  taxes  only  for  a  revenue ;  secondly,  that  the 
act  was  sectional,  since  by  it  the  South,  which  had  but  one  third 
of  the  votes  in  the  House  (76  out  of  213),  paid  over  two  thirds 
of  the  customs  duties ;  and  thirdly,  that,  as  our  government 
was  an  agreement  or  compact  between  the  states,  the  national 
government  created  by  that  compact  could  not  be  superior  to 
the  states  in  sovereignty,  and  could  not  be  itself  the  judge  of 
what  its  proper  powers  were.  The  states,  which  had  bestowed 
on  Congress  its  powers,  were  the  ultimate  judges  of  whether 
or  not  Congress  was  overstepping  those  powers.  And  hence,  at 
any  time,  a  state  might  challenge  an  act  of  Congress  and  appeal 
to  its  sister  states  for  the  verdict.  If  three  fourths  of  the  states 
of  the  Union  sided  with  the  protesting  state,  the  act  of  Con 
gress  in  question  should  be  null  and  void ;  for,  as  the  vote  of 
three  fourths  of  the  states  had  put  the  Constitution  into  force, 
so  the  same  authority  should  defend  the  Constitution  from  the 
encroachment  of  Congress  and  the  Supreme  Court. 

385.  Armed         The  presidential  election  of   1828   had  taken  place  a  few 
tariff  ques-      weeks  before  Calhoun  presented  his  "  Exposition,"  and  Andrew 
tion,  1829        Jackson  had  been  overwhelmingly  chosen  to  succeed  Adams. 

Hoping  that  the  election  of  a  Southerner  and  slaveholder,  an 
ardent  champion  of  "  the  people's  rights,"  and  a  bitter  enemy 
of  the  Adams-Clay  policy,  would  bring  relief  on  the  tariff  ques 
tion,  Calhoun  advised  South  Carolina  to  wait,  before  taking 
any  radical  step,  to  see  what  Jackson's  first  Congress  would 
do.  So  the  commercial  North  and  the  agricultural  South  stood 
facing  each  other  in  hostile  truce,  while  "  the  people  "  invaded 


Sectional  Interests  275 

the  9 White  House  on  inauguration  day,  standing  with  muddy 
cowhide  boots  on  the  damask-covered  chairs,  spilling  orange 
punch  on  the  carpets,  and  almost  suffocating  the  old  "  Hero  of 
New  Orleans  "  in  the  press  to  shake  his  hand  and  declare  that 
his  inauguration  was  the  inauguration  of  the  rule  of  American 
democracy  pure  and  undefiled, 

REFERENCES 

Facing  Westward :  J.  B.  MACM ASTER,  History  of  the  People  of  the 
United  States,  Vol.  IV,  chap,  xxxiii ;  E.  E.  SPARKS,  Expansion  of  the 
American  People,  chaps,  xii,  xiii,  xx,  xxii,  xxiii ;  F.  J.  TURNER,  Rise  of 
the  New  West  (American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  vi,  vii,  xvii;  ELLEN 
SEMPLE,  American  History  and  its  Geographical  Conditions,  chaps,  ix, 
xiii ;  WOODROW  WILSON,  History  of  the  American  People,  Vol.  Ill, 
chap,  iv;  HIGGINSON  and  MACDONALD,  History  of  the  United  States, 
chap,  xvii ;  E.  L.  BOGART,  Economic  History  of  the  United  States,  chaps, 
xiii,  xiv. 

The  Favorite  Sons :  MACMASTER,  Vol.  V,  chap,  xiii ;  E.  E.  SPARKS, 
The  Men  who  made  the  Nation,  chaps,  viii-x ;  TURNER,  chaps,  xi,  xv ; 
also  The  Frontier  in  American  History  (in  American  Historical  Associa 
tion  Reports,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  197-227)  ;  EDWARD  STANWOOD,  History  of 
the  Presidency,  chap,  xi ;  J.  W.  BURGESS,  The  Middle  Period,  chap,  vi; 
biographies  of  John  Quincy  Adams  (by  Morse),  Benton  (by  Roose 
velt),  Webster  (by  Lodge),  Gallatin  (by  Stevens),  Clay  (by  Schurz), 
Jackson  (by  Sumner),  and  Calhoun  (by  Von  Hoist),  in  the  American 
Statesmen  Series. 

An  Era  of  Hard  Feelings :  MACMASTER,  Vol.  V,  chaps,  li-liii;  TURNER, 
Rise  of  the  New  West,  chap,  xviii ;  BURGESS,  chaps,  vii,  viii ;  WOODROW 
WILSON,  Division  and  Reunion,  chap,  i ;  H.  VON  HOLST,  Constitutional 
History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  I,  chap,  xi ;  R.  T.  STEVENSON,  The 
Growth  of  the  Nation  from  1809  to  1837,  chap.  ix. 

The  "Tariff  of  Abominations":  MACMASTER,  Vol.  V,  chap,  xlvi; 
TURNER,  chap,  xix ;  D.  R.  DEWEY,  Financial  History  of  the  United 
States,  chap,  viii ;  F.  W.  TAUSSIG,  Tariff  History  of  the  United  States, 
chap,  ii ;  EDWARD  STANWOOD,  American  Tariff  Controversies,  chap, 
viii;  J.  F.  RHODES,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise 
of  1830,  Vol.  I,  pp.  40-53  ;  Cambridge  Modern  History,  Vol.  VII,  pp. 
374-380;  WILLIAM  MACDONALD,  Select  Documents  of  United  States 
History,  1776-1861,  Nos.  44,  45  (for  text  of  protests). 


276  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  Thomas  H.  Benton's  Prophecies  of  Western  Growth:  MAcM ASTER, 
Vol.  V,  pp.  24-27  ;  W.  M.  MEIGS,  Life  of  Thomas  Hart  Benton,  pp.  90- 
103  ;  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT,  Thomas  Hart  Benton,  pp.  50-58  ;  THOMAS 
H.  BENTON,  Thirty  Years'  View,  Vol.  I,  pp.  13,  14;  H.  A.  BRUCE,  Ro 
mance  of  American  Expansion,  pp.  106-122. 

2.  Robert  Fulton  and  Steam  Navigation:  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  108; 
R.  H.  THURSTON,  Life  of  Robert  Fulton  (Makers  of  America) ;  GEORGE 
H.  PREBLE,  History  of  Steam  Navigation,  chaps,  i-iii ;    MACMASTER, 
Vol.  Ill,  pp.  486-494;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Contem 
poraries,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  1 66,  167. 

3.  The  Selection  of  a  Presidential  Candidate  :  F.  W.  DALLINGER,  Nomi 
nations  for  Elective  Office,  pp.  13-48;  MACMASTER,  Vol.  V,  pp.  55-67  ; 
M.  I.  OSTROGORSKI,  Democracy  and  the   Party  System   in  the   United 
States,  pp.  3-16;  EDWARD  STAN  WOOD,  History  of  the  Presidency,  pp. 
125-132  ;  J.  A.  WOODBURN,  Political  Parties  and  Party  Problems  in  the 
United  States,^.  165-196;  JAMES  BRYCE,  The  American  Commonwealth 
(abridged  edition),  pp.  465-485;  C.  A.  BEARD,  Readings  in  American 
Government  and  Politics,  Nos.  46-50. 

4.  The  Panama  Congress:    STEVENSON,  pp.  215-218;   BURGESS,  pp. 
147-155;  VON  HOLST,  Vol.  I,  pp.  409-433;  J.  D.  RICHARDSON,  Mes 
sages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  Vol.  II,  pp.  318-329;  MACMASTER, 
Vol.  V,  pp.  433-459;  HART,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  150;  BENTON,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
65-69. 

5.  The  Arguments  for  a  Protective  Tariff :  DEWEY,  pp.  191-196 ;  TAUS- 
SIG,  pp.  1-67  ;  W.  M.  GROSVENOR,  Does  Protection  protect  ?  pp.  176-201  ; 
HENRY  GEORGE,  Protection  or  Free  Trade,  pp.  88-120,  154-230  ;  EDWARD 
TAYLOR,  Is  Protection  a  Benefit?  pp.  96-173,  206-232;  A.  MAURICE 
Low,  Protection  in  the  United  States,  pp.  40-59,  94-119  ;  H.  R.  SEAGER, 
Introduction  to  Economics,  pp.  371-383  ;  also  article  "  Protection,"  in  the 
New  International  Encyclopaedia. 


CHAPTER  X 

"THE  REIGN  OF  ANDREW  JACKSON" 

NULLIFICATION 

The  fathers  of  the  American  Revolution  in  their  long  contest  386.  jeai- 
against  the  royal  governors  in  the  colonies  had  learned  to  regard  executive16 
a  strong  executive  as  the  greatest  menace  to  freedom.    There-  JJJJ^ca1 
fore  in  the  first  form  of  government  that  they  devised   (the 
Articles  of  Confederation)  they  made  no  provision  at  all  for  an 
executive  department,  and  in  the  improved  Constitution  of  1787 
they  gave  the  President  only  very  moderate  and  carefully  guarded 
powers  in  the  administration  of  domestic  affairs.    During  the 
first  forty  years  of  our  national  history  our  Presidents  had  re 
spected  the  spirit  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution,  regarding 
themselves  as  the  agents  appointed  by  the  people  to  execute 
the  will  of  the  people's  representatives  in  Congress. 

But  with  Andrew  Jackson  a  new  type  of  President  appeared.  387.  jack- 
Jackson  considered  himself  in  no  way  bound  to  refer  to  Con-  t^o 
gress.    He  thought  of  himself  rather  as  the  champion  of  the  Presidency 
great  mass  of  the  American  people.    Congress  and  the  courts, 
he  feared,  had  become  corrupted  by  association  with  the  moneyed 
men  of  the  country,  and  by  too  long  a  tenure  of.  power.   The 
favorite  historical  analogy  of  Jackson  and  his  supporters  was 
the  Roman  tribune,  an  officer  chosen  by  the  common  folk  of 
Rome  to  protect  them  from  oppressive  legislation  by  the  rich 
and  high-born  patricians. 

Jackson  interpreted  his  election  in  1828  as  a  rebuke  to  the  388.  His 
"  corrupt "  manipulation  of  Congress,  which  had  seated  Adams  *f  character 
in  the  presidential  chair  in  1824.    He  came  into  the  office  with 
the  vindictive  elation  of  a  man  who  had  been  kept  out  of  his 

277 


278  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

rightful  inheritance  for  four  years.  His  strong  will,  doubly 
steeled  by  long  years  of  military  command,  refused  to  bend  to 
entreaty  or  threat.  From  his  own  intense  devotion  to  his  country 
he  drew  the  hasty  and  unwarranted  conclusion  that  all  who  were 
opposed  to  him  were  enemies  of  that  country.  He  was  seldom 
without  a  personal  quarrel,  and,  like  all  combative  natures,  he 
lacked  the  judgment -to  know  what  causes  were  worth  a  con 
troversy  and  what  were  not.  His  partisan  temperament  acted 
like  a  strong  reagent  in  chemistry,  bringing  out  the  political 
color  of  every  mind  with  which  it  came  into  contact.  Every 
body  had  to  take  sides  for  or  against  Andrew  Jackson.  Least 
of  all  our  Presidents  —  less  even  than  Lincoln  or  Roosevelt  — 
did  he  sink  his  personality  in  his  office.  He  dominated  the  office 
and  even  scouted  its  traditions.  He  made  it  Jacksonian.  With 
all  his  rancor  against  the  "  effete  dynasties  "  and  "  pampered 
minions  "  of  Europe,  he  often  conducted  himself  more  like  a 
monarch  than  like  the  sworn  defender  of  a  democratic  constitu 
tion.  So  that  Professor  von  Hoist,  our  German  historian,  called 
his  presidency  "  the  reign  of  Andrew  Jackson." 

389.  The  in-  A  will  so  absolute  as  Jackson's  could  have  little  regard  for 
of *his  con?  consistency.  In  1816  he  had  written  to  President-elect  Monroe 
dent  wifiThis  ^^  Partv  SP^  was  a  nionstrous  thing,  unworthy  of  a  great  and 
earlier  pro-  free  nation;  yet  when  he  himself  came  into  office  in  1829  he 
showed  himself  the  most  partisan  President  our  country  has 
ever  had.  Between  his  inauguration  in  March  and  the  meeting 
of  his  first  Congress  in  December  he  removed  over  a  thousand 
government  officials  in  order  to  make  places  for  men  who  had 
supported  his  campaign,  whereas  all  the  previous  Presidents 
had  together  made  less  than  a  hundred  political  removals.  He 
had  protested  vigorously  against  allowing  any  member  of  Con 
gress  to  be  appointed  to  an  executive  office,  yet  he  himself 
chose  four  out  of  the  six  members  of  his  first  cabinet  from 
Congress.  In  each  of  his  annual  messages  he  advised  against 
a  second  term,  yet  he  allowed  himself,  after  his  first  year  of 
office,  to  be  announced  through  the  administrative  newspapers 


"  The  Reign  of  Andrew  Jackson  "  279 

at  Washington  and  elsewhere  as  a  candidate  for  reelection  in 
1832.  He  had  three  times  accepted  the  nomination  for  the 
presidency  by  the  Tennessee  legislature,  yet  toward  the  close 
of  his  second  term  he  called  Judge  Hugh  L.  White  "  a  traitor  " 
for  accepting  the  same  compliment  from  the  same  legislature, 
because  his  own  candidate  was  Van  Buren.  He  poured  out 
his  wrath  on  the  leaders  of  the  preceding  administration  for 
"  crooked  politics,"  "  corrupt  bargains,"  jobbery,  and  underhand 
methods  ;  yet  he  himself  carried  on  his  government  almost  ex 
clusively  with  the  help  of  shrewd  newspaper  editors  and  devoted 
partisans  in  minor  public  offices.  Even  the  official  cabinet,  with 
the  exception  of  Van  Buren,  was  ignored  in  favor  of  a  group  of 
political  wirepullers,  called,  on  account  of  its  backstair  methods, 
the  "  kitchen  cabinet." 

As  for  the  anti-tariff  men  of  the  South,  they  got  small  comfort  390.  He  re- 
from  Jackson.    In  his  first  message  he  scarcely  mentioned  the  courage  the 
tariff,  and  in  his  next  one  (December,  1830),  while  admitting  prot-esttsth 
that  the  tariff  was  "  too  high  on  some  of  the  comforts  of  life,"  tariff 
he  nevertheless  declared  both  that  Congress  had  the  right  to 
levy  a  protective  tariff,  and  that  the  policy  of  protection  was 
desirable.     Meanwhile   an   event  had  occurred  in  the  United 
States   Senate   which  greatly  inflamed  the  hostile  feelings  of 
North  and  South,  and  hastened  South  Carolina  into  a  policy 
of  defiance. 

The  sale  of  public  lands  in  the  West  was  an  important  source  391.  senator 
of  income  to  the  national  government.    The  low  price  of  these 


lands  tempted  speculators  to  buy  them  up  and  hold  them  for  sale  of  Public 

lands,  Decem- 
a  rise  in  price.    Accordingly  Senator    Foote  of   Connecticut,  ber,  1829 

in  December,  1829,  proposed  a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  no 
more  public  land  should  be  put  on  the  market  for  a  time.  The 
Southern  and  Western  members  of  Congress  seized  on  this 
motion  as  another  proof  of  the  determination  of  the  merchants 
of  the  Eastern  states  to  enrich  themselves  at  the  expense  of 
the  country's  growth.  These  merchants,  they  said,  wanted  to 
stop  migration  to  the  West,  in  order  to  keep  a  mass  of  cheap 


280 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


laborers  for  their  factories  in  the  East,  just  as  they  wanted  high 
duties  to  protect  the  output  of  those  factories. 
392.  senator        During  the  debate  Robert  Hayne  of  South  Carolina  left  the 


393.  Daniel 
reply  to 


specific  subject  under  discussion,  namely  the  land  sales,  to  enter 
theNortiTnd  on  a  general  tirade  against  the  North,  and  against  Massachusetts 
in  particular.  He  accused  the  Bay  State  of  having  shown  a 
narrow,  selfish,  sectional  spirit  from  the  earliest  days  of  the 
republic.  He  declared  that  the  only  way  to  preserve  the  Union  of 
free  republics,  which  the  "  fathers  "  wished  this  country  to  be,  was 
to  resist  the  economic  tyranny  of  the  manufacturing  states,  which 
had  got  control  of  Congress.  The  proper  method  of  resistance 
had  already  been  set  forth  by  Calhoun  in  his  "  Exposition." 

Daniel  Webster  replied  to  Hayne  in  an  oration  which  is  con- 
sidered  the  greatest  speech  ever  delivered  in  the  halls  of  Con- 
Sress  (JanuarY  26-27,  l83°)-  After  defending  Massachusetts 
against  the  charge  of  sectionalism,  Webster  went  on  to  develop 
the  theory  of  the  national  government  as  opposed  to  the  mere 
league  of  states  which  the  Southern  orators  advocated.  Not  the 
states,  he  claimed,  but  the  people  of  the  nation  had  made  the 
Union.  "  It  is,  sir,  the  people's  Constitution,  the  people's  gov 
ernment,  made  for  the  people,  made  by  the  people,  answerable 
to  the  people."  If  Congress  exceeded  its  powers,  there  was  an 
arbiter  appointed  by  the  Constitution  itself,  namely  the  Supreme 
Court,  which  had  the  authority  to  declare  laws  null  and  void. 
This  authority  could  not  be  vested  in  a  state  or  a  group  of 
states.  Pennsylvania  would  annul  one  law,  Alabama  another, 
Virginia  a  third,  and  so  on.  Our  national  legislature  would 
then  become  a  mockery,  and  our  Constitution,  instead  of  a 
strong  instrument  of  government,  would  be  a  mere  collection 
of  topics  for  endless  dispute  between  the  sections  of  our 
country.  The  Union  would  fall  apart.  The  states  would  re 
turn  to  the  frightful  condition  of  anarchy  which  followed  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  our  flag,  "  stained  with  the^  blood  of 
fratricidal  war,"  would  float  over  "  the  dismembered  fragments 
of  our  once  glorious  empire." 


*  *  The  Reign  of  A  ndrew  Jackson  "  281 

The  echoes  of   Webster's  great   speech  were  still   ringing  394.  jack- 
through  the  land  when  President  Jackson  gave  a  public  and  the' 


unmistakable  expression  of  his  view  of  nullification.    At  a  din-  birthday  din 

ner,  April  13, 
ner  in  celebration  of  Jefferson's  birthday  (April  13),  Jackson  1830 

responded  to  a  call  for  a  toast  with  the  sentiment,  "  Our 
federal  Union  —  it  must  be  preserved  !  "  The  Vice  President, 
Calhoun,  immediately  responded  with  the  toast,  "  Liberty 
dearer  than  Union  !  "  Feeling  was  intense.  For  the  party  of 
Hayne  and  Calhoun  the  Union  was  a  menace  to  liberty  ;  for 
the  party  of  Jackson  and  Webster  it  was  the  only  condition 
and  guarantee  of  liberty.  When  the  advocates  of  nullification 
in  South  Carolina  were  warned  by  the  Union  men  that  their 
course  might  bring  war,  they  contemptuously  asked  these 
"  submission  men  "  whether  the  "  descendants  of  the  heroes  of 
1776  should  be  afraid  of  war!  " 

In  the  summer  of  1832  a  new  tariff  bill  was  passed  by  Con-  395.  south 
gress.    Its  rates  were  somewhat  lower  than  those  of  the  "Tariff  nuisthet^iff 

of  Abominations,"  but  still  it  was  highly  protective.    The  South-  acts  of  l828 

and  1832,  No- 

ern  members  of  Congress  wrote  home  from  Washington  that  vember,  1832 

no  help  was  to  be  expected  from  that  quarter.    Then  the  legis 

lature  of  South  Carolina  sent  out  the  call  for  a  state  convention 

to  consider  what  action  should  be  taken  on  the  oppressive  tariff 

acts.   The  convention  met  at  Columbia  in  November,  1832,  and 

by  the  decisive  vote  of  136  to  26  declared  that  the  tariff  acts  of 

1828  and  1832  were  "null,  void,  and  no  law."  The  people  of 

the  state  were  ordered  to  pay  no  duties  under  these  laws  after 

February  i,  1833.    At  the  same  time  the  convention  declared 

that  any  attempt  by  Congress  to  enforce  the  tariff  law  in  South 

Carolina,  to  close  her  ports  or  destroy  her  commerce,  would  be  a 

just  cause  for  the  secession  of  the  state  from  the  Union.  Governor 

Hamilton  called  for  10,000  volunteer  troops  to  defend  the  state. 

Jackson  answered  in  a  strong  proclamation.    "  I  consider  the  396.  jack- 
power  to  annul  a  law  of  the  United  States,  assumed  by  one 
state,  incompatible  with  the  existence  of  the  Union,  ...  in 
consistent  with  every  principle  on  which  the  Constitution  was 


282 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


397.  Henry 
Clay  secures 
a  compro 
mise  tariff, 
March,  1833 


founded,  and  destructive  of  the  great  object  for  which  it  was 
formed."  To  Poinsett,  collector  of  the  port  of  Charleston,  he 
wrote,  "  In  forty  days  I  will  have  40,000  men  in  the  state  of 
South  Carolina  to  enforce  the  law." 

Calhoun,  who  had  resigned  the  vice  presidency  to  enter  the 
Senate,  now  called  on  Clay  to  help  in  reconciling  South  Caro 
lina's  claims  with  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  Clay,  who  had 
little  desire  to  see  the  "  military  chieftain  "  in  the  White  House 
directing  40,000  men  against  South  Carolina,  worked  out  a 
compromise  tariff,  according  to  which  the  duties  were  to  be  re 
duced  gradually,  until  in  1842  they  should  reach  the  level  of  the 
tariff  act  of  1816.  Clay's  compromise  tariff  passed  both  Houses 
of  Congress  and  was  signed  by  Jackson,  March  2,  1833,  at  the 
same  moment  with  a  "  Force  Bill,"  which  gave  the  President  the 
right  to  employ  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States  to  col 
lect  the  duties  in  South  Carolina. 

398.  The  The  protesting  state  accepted  the  compromise  tariff,  and  by  a 

strife  averted  vote  of  153  to  4  the  convention  rescinded  the  ordinance  of  nullifi 
cation  (March  15,  1833).  Each  side  claimed  the  victory,  —  South 
Carolina  for  having  compelled  Congress  to  lower  the  tariff,  and 
the  United  States  for  having  forced  South  Carolina  to  retract  the 
ordinance  of  nullification.  The  crisis  of  disunion  was  over,  but 
the  seeds  of  discontent  remained.  Jackson's  strong  hand  had  pre 
served  the  Union,  but  his  words  had  not  restored  unity  between 
the  warring  sections.  The  language  of  nullification  was  not  for 
gotten  in  South  Carolina.  Twenty-eight  years  later  it  was  revived 
and  intensified  in  a  struggle  far  more  serious  than  that  over  tariff 
rates,  —  the  great  slavery  controversy  which  precipitated  the 
Civil  War. 


THE  WAR  ON  THE  BANK 


Two  days  after  signing  the  compromise  tariff  of  1833  Jackson 
was  inaugurated  President  a  second  time.  He  had  defeated 
Clay,  the  National-Republican  candidate,  in  a  campaign  turning 
on  the  recharter  of  the  National  Bank. 


'  *  The  Reign  of  A  ndrew  Jackson  "  283 

We  have  seen  in  an  earlier  chapter  how  Alexander  Ham-  399.  The 
ilton,  in  1791,  got  Congress  to  charter  for  a  term  of  twenty  National*1 
years  a  banking  corporation  which  was  to  do  all  the  govern-  Bank 
ment's  financial  business ;  to  enjoy  the  use,  without  interest,  of 
the  money  which  the  Treasury  Department  collected  from  duties, 
land  sales,  and  other  sources  of  the  national  income ;  and,  in  re 
turn  for  this  favor,  to  arrange  the  government's  loans,  pay  the 
interest  on  the  public  debt,  and  negotiate  money  exchanges  with 
foreign  countries.   We  have  seen  also  how  five  years  after  the 
expiration  of  this  charter  Congress  established  a  second  National 
Bank  (1816),  with  all  the  powers  of  the  earlier  bank  and  three 
and  a  half  times  its  capital. 

This  second  Bank  of  the  United  States  was  very  prosperous  400.  The 
at  the  beginning  of  Jackson's  administration.  In  addition  to  ^second °f 
$8,000,000  of  the  public  money,  it  held  some  $6,000,000  in  de-  National 
posits  of  private  persons.  It  made  a  profit  of  $3,000,000  a 
year,  from  which  it  paid  handsome  dividends  to  its  stockholders. 
Its  shares  of  $100  par  value  sold  frequently  as  high  as  $140 
each.  "  Besides  the  parent  bank  at  Philadelphia,  with  its  mar 
ble  palace  and  hundreds  of  clerks,"  says  Parton  in  his  ".  Life  of 
Andrew  Jackson,"  "  there  were  twenty-five  branches  in  the  towns 
and  cities  of  the  Union,  each  of  which  had  its  president,  cashier, 
and  board  of  directors.  The  employees  of  the  Bank  were  more 
than  five  hundred  in  number,  all  men  of  standing  and  influence, 
and  liberally  salaried.  In  every  county  of  the  Union,  in  every 
nation  on  the  globe,  were  stockholders  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States.  .  .  .  One  fourth  of  its  stock  was  held  by  women,  or 
phans,  and  trustees  of  charity  funds  —  so  high  and  unquestioned 
was  its  credit."  Its  notes  passed  as  gold  not  only  in  every  part 
of  the  Union,  but  in  the  distant  cities  of  London,  St.  Peters 
burg,  Cairo,  and  Calcutta  as  well. 

The  opponents  of  the  Bank  saw  how  great  a  hold  such  an  in-  401.  Opposi- 
stitution  could  get  on  the  government  by  showing  it  financial  Bank 
favors  in  time  of  stress,  and  what  an  influence  it  could  wield  in 
politics  by  contributions  from  its  vast  wealth  to  the  election  of 


284 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


402.  Jack 
son's  hostil 
ity  to  the 
Bank 


403.  He 

vetoes  the 
bill  for  the 
renewal  of 
the  charter, 
1832 


404.  The 
language  of 
the  veto 


candidates  favorable  to  its  interests.1  That  the  government 
should  charter  such  an  institution  was  contrary  to  the  principles 
of  democracy.  It  was  encouraging  corruption  in  public  life  by 
favoring  the  rich,  instead  of  standing  for  equal  rights  and  equal 
protection  for  all. 

Jackson  was  naturally  a  bitter  opponent  of  the  Bank.  In  his 
first  message  to  Congress  (December,  1829),  although  the  char 
ter  of  the  Bank  had  still  seven  years  to  run,  he  spoke  disparag 
ingly  of  it.  "  Both  the  constitutionality  and  the  expediency  of 
the  law  creating  this  Bank,"  he  wrote,  "  are  well  questioned 
by  a  large  portion  of  our  fellow  citizens."  Jackson's  suspicions 
of  the  political  corruption  exercised  by  the  Bank  were  much 
strengthened  by  the  fact  that  most  of  the  officers  of  that  institu 
tion  were  his  political  opponents.  The  hostility  of  President 
Jackson  injured  the  credit  of  the  Bank.  Its  stocks  fell  in  price, 
and  its  managers  began  to  fear  that  its  business  would  be  ruined. 
Therefore  its  president,  Nicholas  Biddle,  acting  on  the  advice  of 
Clay,  Webster,  and  other  friends,  applied  to  Congress  early  in 
1832  for  a  renewal  of  the  charter.  The  bill  passed  the  House 
by  a  vote  of  107  to  86. 

It  was  the  year  of  the  presidential  election.  Clay,  who  was 
Jackson's  opponent,  urged  the  application  for  a  recharter  of  the 
Bank  in  order  to  make  campaign  material.  He  thought  that 
Jackson  would  not  dare  to  veto  the  bill,  for  fear  of  losing  his 
support  in  the  Northern  states,  where  the  Bank  was  in  favor. 
But  Clay  was  mistaken  in  thinking  that  Jackson  would  not  dare 
to  do  what  he  had  determined  to  do,  whether  he  gained  the 
presidency  or  not.  Jackson  promptly  sent  back  the  bill  with  a 
veto  message  which,  as  Clay  wrote  to  Biddle,  had  "  all  the  fury, 
of  a  chained  panther  biting  the  bars  of  his  cage." 

In  his  veto  Jackson  denounced  the  Bank  as  a  dangerous  mo 
nopoly,  managed  by  a  "  favored  class  of  opulent  citizens,"  inter 
fering  with  the  free  exercise  of  the  people's  will  and  bending 

1  The  managers  of  the  Bank  actually  confessed  that  they  spent  $58,000  of  its 
funds  on  campaign  material  (speeches,  pamphlets,  etc.)  to  secure  the  election 
of  Henry  Clay  in  1832. 


"  The  Reign  of  Andrew  Jackson  "  285 

the  government  to  its  selfish  purposes.  Furthermore,  the  Bank 
was  keeping  the  West  poor,  by  concentrating  the  money  of  the 
country  in  the  Eastern  cities.  The  Supreme  Court  had  declared, 
in  the  case  of  McCulloch  vs.  Maryland  (p.  234),  that  Con 
gress  had  the  right  to  charter  the  Bank.  Jackson  made  short 
work  of  this  argument  by  the  astonishing  statement  that  the 
President's  opinion  of  what  was  constitutional  was  as  good  as 
the  Supreme  Court's.  "  Each  officer,"  he  wrote,  "  takes  the  oath 
to  support  the  Constitution  as  he  understands  it,  not  as  another 
understands  it.  ...  The  opinion  of  the  judges  has  no  more  au 
thority  over  Congress  than  the  opinion  of  Congress  has  over  the 
judges,  and  on  that  point  the  President  is  independent  of  both." 

Clay  was  never  more  mistaken  than  when  he  appealed  to  the  405.  Jackson 
people  to  defeat  Andrew  Jackson  on  the  issue  of  the  National 
Bank.  Jackson  was  overwhelmingly  elected  in  November,  1832, 
with  219  electoral  votes  to  Clay's  49,  Even  Pennsylvania  gave 
her  30  electoral  votes  to  Jackson,  though  only  one  of  the 
Pennsylvania  congressmen  had  voted  against  the  bill  for  re- 
chartering  the  Bank.  Interpreting  his  reelection  as  the  man 
date  of  the  American  people  for  the  destruction  of  the  Bank, 
Jackson  entered  on  a  financial  policy  which  formed  the  chief 
feature  of  his  second  term,  and  resulted  in  as  complete  a  revo 
lution  in  the  method  of  handling  the  government's  funds  as  if  a 
man  were  to  draw  all  his  money  out  of  his  bank  and  place  it 
in  a  strong  vault  built  in  his  own  garden. 

Jackson  began  his  attack  on  the  Bank  by  ordering  a  special  406.  He 
investigation  of  its  condition ;  but,  to  his  disappointment,  the  government 

examiner  found  it  perfectly  sound.    Both  Houses  of  Congress  de.posits  to  *>e 

withdrawn 
voted  confidence  in  the  Bank  as  a  receptacle  for  the  government's  from  the 

deposits.  Then  Jackson  fell  back  on  a  clause  in  the  charter,  ber  i,  1833 
which  gave  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  the  right  to  discontinue 
using  the  Bank  for  the  government's  deposits  if  he  gave  his 
reasons  to  Congress  for  so  doing.  Jackson  promoted  one  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury  to  the  State  Department,  and  curtly  dis 
missed  another,  before  he  found  in  Roger  B.  Taney,  of  Maryland, 


286  National  verstts  Sectional  Interests 

an  officer  who  approved  his  policy.  Taney  issued  the  famous 
order  that  after  October  i,  1833,  the  government  should  no 
longer  use  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  for  its  deposits,  but 
would  place  its  revenues  in  certain  state  banks  (called  from  this 
order  the  "  pet  banks  ")  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 

407.  He  is  All  this  happened  during  the  recess  of  Congress.    When  the 
Congress  ^      Senate  met,  it  voted  that  the  reasons  given  by  Taney  for  re 
moving  the  deposits  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  were 
"  unsatisfactory  and  insufficient,"  and  refused  to  confirm  the 
appointment  of  Taney  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.    Further 
more,  by  a  vote  of  26  to  20  it  spread  upon  its  journal  a  formal 
censure  of  Andrew  Jackson,  to  the  effect  that  "  the  President, 
in  the  late  executive  proceedings  in  relation  to  the  public  revenue 
[had]  assumed  upon  himself  authority  and  power  not  conferred 
by  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  but  in  derogation  of  both." 
The  censure  was  unmerited,  for  the  President  had  not  exceeded 
his  power  in  dismissing  a  cabinet  officer,  neither  had  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury,  in  ceasing  to  make  government  deposits 
in  the  Bank.   The  censure  was  also  illegal,  for  the  only  way  the 
Senate  can  condemn  the  President  is  to  convict  him  in  a  regular 
trial  after  he  has  been  impeached  by  the  House  of  Represent 
atives.   Jackson  with  perfect  right  protested  against  the  censure ; 
but  it  was  only  after  a  hard  fight  of  three  years  that  his  cham 
pion  in  the  Senate,  Thomas  H.  Ben  ton,  succeeded  in  getting 
the  offensive  vote  expunged  from  the  journal. 

408.  jackson       Jackson's  overthrow  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  was 
destroys  the  ,      ,  .... 

Bank  at  a        undoubtedly  approved  by  the  majority  of  American  citizens,  as 

the  removal  of  a  dangerous  influence  in  our  political  life.  The 
act  would  probably  have  had  little  effect  on  the  business  of  the 
country,  had  it  not  come  at  a  critical  moment  in  our  industrial 
development.  The  period  just  following  Jackson's  second  elec 
tion  was  one  of  overconfidence  in  our  country's  growth.  Our 
foreign  trade  was  large.  The  country  was  out  of  debt,  and  the 
customs  duties  were  bringing  a  large  surplus  into  the  Treasury 
every  year.  The  recent  introduction  of  the  steam  engine  running 


*  *  The  Reign  of  A  ndrew  Jackson  "  2  87 

on  iron  rails  promised  to  revolutionize  the  whole  system  of  slow 
transportation  by  river,  cart,  and  canal.  Individuals,  stock  com 
panies,  and  state  governments  were  anxious  to  borrow  large 
sums  of  money  to  invest  in  land,  labor,  and  building  and  trans 
portation  supplies,  believing  that  we  were  on  the  eve  of  a 
marvelous  "  boom  "  in  real  estate  and  commerce. 

The  new  Western  states  vied  with  each  other  in  patriotic  pro]-  409.  The 
ects  of  extension.    For  example,  Indiana,  whose  population  in 


1836  was  only  about  c  00,000,  undertook  to  build  1200  miles  western  lands 

and  the  undue 
of  railroad  through  her  forests  and  farm  lands,  thereby  contract-  extension  of 

ing  a  debt  of  $20  a  head  for  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  JJJg1  '  x  33~ 

state.   Banks  multiplied  in  the  West,  facilitating  rash  investments 

by  lending  on  easy  terms.1   These  "  wildcat  "  banks,  as  they  were 

called,  issued  notes  far  beyond  the  legitimate  business  needs  of 

the  country,  and  far  beyond  their  real  capital  in  gold  and  silver. 

This  great  increase  of  the  amount  of  currency  put  into  circula 

tion  was  mistaken  for  an  increase  in  the  country's  wealth.   The 

fever  of  speculation  reached  its  height  in  the  purchase  of  Western 

lands.    In  1834  about  $3,000,000  worth  of  land  was  sold  by 

the  United  States  government.    Next  year  the  sales  jumped  to 

$14,000,000,  and  the  following  year  to  $24,000,000. 

The  purchasers  paid  for  their  lands  in  the  paper  money  of  the  410.  The 
unreliable  Western  banks,  and  the  United  States  Treasury  was  cuiar  f  i^e" 
soon  overflowing  with  this  depreciating  currency.  In  the  summer 
of  1836  Jackson  issued  his  famous  Specie  Circular,  forbidding 
the  officers  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  to  accept  any 
money  but  gold  and  silver  (specie)  in  payment  for  further  sales 
of  public  land. 

The  Specie  Circular  was  the  needle  that  pricked  the  bubble  411.  The 
of  speculation.    The  "  wildcat  "  banks  did  not  have  the  gold  and 


silver  to  pay  for  the  notes  they  had  issued.     Speculators  could  "boom."  The 

panic  of  1837 
not  borrow  "  hard  money  "  on  such  easy  terms  as  they  had 

1  In  1829  there  were  329  of  these  state  banks  in  the  West,  and  by  1837  the 
number  had  reached  788.  The  hope  of  getting  a  share  of  the  United  States  funds 
denied  to  the  National  Bank  was  a  great  stimulus  to  the  state  banking  business. 


.288  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

borrowed  paper ;  and  the  "  boom  "  of  the  West  collapsed.1  Land 
sales  dropped  to  less  than  $900,000  for  the  year  1837.  Building 
operations  ceased.  Long  lines  of  rails  were  left  to  rust  in  the 
Western  forests.  Thousands  of  laborers  were  thrown  out  of 
employment.  The  New  York  Era  reported  nine  tenths  of  the 
factories  in  the  Eastern  states  closed  by  September,  1837.  The 
distress  of  industrial  depression  following  this .  financial  panic 
was  increased  by  the  general  failure  of  the  crops  in  the  summers 
of  1835  and  J^3^-  The  Hessian  fly  ravaged  the  wheat  fields  of 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania,  and  the  price  of  flour 
rose  to  $12  a  barrel.  The  starving  populace  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  rioted.  Mobs  broke  into  the  warehouses  where  the 
flour  was  stored,  and  threw  the  precious  barrels  into  the  street. 
Over  600  banks  went  down  in  failure,  including  the  50  or  more 
"  pet  banks  "  that  held  the  government's  deposits.  Our  credit 
abroad  was  almost  ruined.  Foreign  trade  languished.  At  the 
close  of  the  period  of  depression  the  Treasury  showed  a  deficit 
of  over  $10,000,000.  - 

412.  The  Five  or  six  years  passed  before  the  country  fully  recovered 

Independent-   £  •       r     o  /-  i 

Treasury        irom  the  panic  of  1837,  and  confidence  returned  to  merchants, 

system,  1840  bankers>  an(j  investors.  The  government  did  not  again  intrust 
its  funds  to  either  a  National  Bank  or  "  pet  banks  "  of  the  states. 
The  former  had  been  condemned  as  politically  corrupt;  the  latter 
had  proved  themselves  financially  unsound.  A  system  of  govern 
ment  deposit  was  adopted  under  Jackson's  successor,  Van  Buren 
(1840),  which  completely  separated  the  public  funds  from  the 
banking  business  in  any  form.  This  was  called  the  Independent- 
Treasury  or  the  Subtreasury  system.  The  government  con 
structed  vaults  in  several  of  the  larger  cities  of  the  country  — 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  St.  Louis,  Charleston,  New 
Orleans  —  and  stored  its  revenues  in  these  vaults.  It  was  not 

1  The  citizens  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  presented  a  memorial  to  the  Senate  in 
which  they  said  :  "  Had  a  large  invading  army  passed  triumphantly  through  our 
country  it  could  not  have  so  completely  marred  our  prosperity.  The  countenances 
of  our  citizens  are  more  gloomy  and  desponding  than  when  the  dread  cholera  was 
amongst  us." 


'  '  The  Reign  of  A  ndrew  Jackson  "  289 

until  the  Civil  War  that  our  government,  under  the  stress  of 
enormous  expenses,  was  again  obliged  to  appeal  to  the  financial 
institutions  of  the  country.  It  then  devised  the  present  system 
of  national  banks,  to  which  we  shall  refer  in  a  later  chapter. 

A  NEW  PARTY 

Although  the  contest  with  South  Carolina  over  nullification  413.  impor- 
and  the  war  on  the  United  States  Bank  were  the  two  most  im-  of  "he^ja^k- 
portant   events   in  Jackson's    administration,   both    illustrating  sonian  era 
vividly  the  domineering  character  of  the  man,  they  were  by  no 
means  the  only  matters  of  importance  in  his  administrations. 
We  shall  have  occasion  later  to  revert  to  this  period  when  deal 
ing  with  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  acquisition  of  Texas,  and 
the  extension  of  our  settlements  into  the  great  region  beyond 
the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri  rivers.   The  decade  1830-1840 
was,  in  fine,  a  new  era  in  our  history.    It  was  a  period  of  epoch- 
making  inventions  and  discoveries  in  the  industrial  world,  of 
far-reaching  innovations  in  politics,  of  ardent  social  reforms  and 
humanitarian  projects. 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  battles  and  treaties  as  the  414.  New 
exciting  events  which  have  brought  the  changes  in  a  nation's 


life  —  and  it  is  true  that   some   few  "decisive  battles"  have  ies  in  the  de 

cade  1830- 
altered  the  course  of  history.    But  the  steady,  silent  work  of  the  1840 

head  and  hands  of  a  people  engaged  in  invention  and  industry 
has  done  more  to  shape  the  course  of  history  than  all  the  array 
of  armies  with  bugle  and  sword.  The  invention  in  1831  of  the 
McCormick  reaper  was  the  prophecy  that  our  great  wheat  and 
corn  fields  of  the  West  would  some  day  produce  enough  to  feed 
half  the  world.  The  utilization  of  the  immense  anthracite-coal 
deposits  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  process  of  iron  smelting  in  1836 
foreshadowed  this  mighty  age  of  steel  which  has  superseded  our 
fathers'  age  of  wood.  The  appliance  of  the  screw  propeller  to 
ocean  steamers  in  1838  opened  the  way  for  the  Mauretania. 
And,  chief  of  all,  the  appearance  in  1830  of  a  steam  locomotive 


290 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


415.  Effect  of 
the  railroads 
on  economic 
development 


on  the  new  twenty-three-mile  track  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
railway  gave  promise  of  the  network  of  nearly  250,000  miles  of 
railroad  track  which  covers  our  country  to-day,  bringing  the 
Pacific  coast  within  four  days  of  New  York  City.  It  is  an  inter 
esting  coincidence  that  while  the  steam  locomotive  was  being 
tested  and  its  advocates  were  laboring  to  overcome  the  foolish 
prejudices  against  its  adoption,1  statesmen  in  Congress  were 
ridiculing  the  idea  of  our  taking  any  interest  in  the  Oregon 
region  beyond  the  Rockies,  on  the  ground  that  it  would  take  a 
representative  from  that  country  a  year  to  make  the  journey  to 
Washington  and  back. 


A  Railroad  Train  of  1830  compared  with  a  Modern  Locomotive 

By  the  end  of  the  decade  the  twenty-three  miles  of  railroad 
had  increased  almost  a  hundredfold,  and  steam  trains  were 
running  in  all  the  Atlantic  States  from  New  York  to  Georgia. 
This  improvement  in  transportation  over  wagon  and  canal 
stimulated  business  in  every  direction.  The  demand  for  the 
products  of  American  farms  and  factories  increased  with  the 
extension  of  the  means  of  transportation.  As  the  volume  of 
freight  traffic  grew,  cities  began  to  develop  rapidly  at  certain 
distributing  or  terminal  points.  Large  sums  of  money  were 
concentrated  in  these  cities  in  business  schemes,  or  invested  in 
the  stocks  and  bonds  of  the  new  railroads.  With  the  gathering 

1  The  locomotive,  it  was  said,  would  spoil  the  farms  by  its  soot,  and  ignite 
barns  and  dwellings  by  its  sparks.  Its  noise  would  frighten  the  animals  so  that 
hens  would  not  lay  and  cows  would  refuse  to  give  their  milk. 


"  The  Reign  of  Andrew  Jackson  "  291 

of  population  and  capital  in  the  cities,  and  the  enlargement  of 
the  small  local  business  concerns  into  joint-stock  companies 
employing  hundreds  of  workmen,  the  conditions  of  the  laboring 
class  and  the  relations  of  labor  to  capital  began  to  claim  serious 
attention. 

In  1833  a  Labor  party  held  its  first  national  convention  at  416.  Labor 
Philadelphia,  and  formulated  demands  for  higher  wages,  shorter  JJJ  decade11 
hours  of  work,  and  more  sanitary  conditions  in  shops  and  fac-  1830-1840 
tories.  Trade-unions  began  to  be  formed  —  the  workers  banding 
together  both  to  keep  unskilled  laborers  out  of  the  trades  and  to 
enforce  their  demands  for  higher  wages  and  shorter  hours  of 
labor.  There  were  strikes  in  various  cities  because  the  employers 
refused  the  workmen's  demands.  The  laborers  also  sought 
relief  from  the  state  legislatures.  They  asked  to  have  "  me 
chanics'  lien  laws "  passed,  giving  them  a  claim  upon  the 
buildings  which  they  constructed,  and  thus  assuring  them  of 
pay  for  their  labor  in  case  the  contractors  failed.  They  pro 
tested  against  the  competition  of  goods  made  in  prisons  by 
convict  labor,  demanded  free  schools  for  their  children,  and 
denounced  the  laws  which  every  year  sent  75,000  men  to  jail 
for  debt.1 

Besides  these  social  and  industrial  reforms,  far-reaching  polit-  417.  The 
ical  changes  were  in  progress  in  the  decade  1830-1 840. 2    It  is  ^volution0  in 
hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  America  became  a  democ-  Jackson's  day 
racy  in  that  decade,  which  was  the  first  to  see  all  classes  of  her 
people  participating  actively  in  the  government.   In  Washington's 
day  only  some  120,000  persons  in  a  population  of  4,000,000 
had  a  right  to  vote  —  about  one  in  seven  of  the  adult  male 
population.    The  other  six   sevenths  were  excluded  from  the 

1  It  is  hard  to  imagine  a  more  stupid  form  of  punishment  than  sending  a 
man  to  jail  for  debt,  forcing  him  into  idleness  for  a  fault  which  only  diligence 
and  industry  can  cure.    Yet  this  custom  prevailed  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlan 
tic  well  into  the  nineteenth  century.    Charles  Dickens  portrays  its  evil  effects  in 
"  Little  Dorrit." 

2  For  the  contemporary  reforms  in  England  of  the  poor  laws,  the  penal  laws, 
the  factory  laws,  and  the  labor  laws,  see  Cheyney's  Short  History  of  England, 
chap,  xix. 


2Q2 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


418.  The 
political 
machine  and 
the  "spoils 
system  " 


419.  The 
national  nom 
inating  con 
ventions, 
1831-1832 


franchise  by  high  property  qualifications  or  religious  tests  in 
herited  from  colonial  days.  As  late  as  the  election  of  1828 
Rhode  Island,  with  a  population  of  97,000,  cast  only  3575 
votes.  But  in  the  Jacksonian  period  the  democratic  ideal  of 
manhood  suffrage  was  transforming  the  political  aspect  of  the 
whole  country.  States  which  had  not  altered  their  constitutions 
since  their  establishment  (Tennessee,  Mississippi),  or  even  since 
colonial  days  (Rhode  Island,  North  Carolina),  now  undertook 
extensive  revisions.  They  extended  the  right  of  suffrage,  short 
ened  the  terms  of  officers,  and  transferred  the  choice  of  many 
executive  officials  and  judges  from  the  governor  to  the  people. 

This  democratic  revolution  had  its  evil  side.  Clever  political 
managers,  or  "  bosses,"  began  to  build  up  party  machines-  in 
every  state,  by  organizing  the  great  masses  of  voters  and  using 
the  victory  of  their  party  for  the  strengthening  of  the  machine. 
Appointments  to  public  offices  in  the  gift  of  the  successful  can 
didates  were  made  as  rewards  to  the  men  who  had  done  most 
to  win  the  elections,  quite  irrespective  often  of  their  fitness  for 
the  office.  Faithful  and  able  officials  and  clerks  of  many  years' 
service  were  removed  simply  to  make  room  for  men  of  the  vic 
torious  party,  who  were  clamoring  for  their  places.  This  use  of 
government  offices,  from  the  cabinet  portfolios  down  to  the 
humblest  clerkships,  as  prizes  of  war  to  be  fought  for  at  the 
polls,  was  vindicated  in  classic  language  by  a  New  York  politi 
cian  named  Marcy,  who  declared  that  "  to  the  victor  belong 
the  spoils."  We  have  seen  how  Jackson,  by  his  wholesale  re 
movals  from  office,  extended  the  "  spoils  system  "  to  the  national 
government. 

Another  important  feature  of  the  democratic  revolution  of 
the  decade  1830-1840  was  the  development  of  the  national 
conventions  for  nominating  the  candidates  of  each  party  for 
President  and  Vice  President,  and  for  publishing  a  declaration, 
or  "platform,"  of  the  principles  of  the  party.  In  1831  and 
1832  three  such  conventions  were  held,  all  at  Baltimore.  The 
Antimasons  (a  small  party  formed  to  combat  the  secret  order 


The  Reign  of  Andrew  Jackson  " 


293 


of  the  Masons)  l  were  first  in  the  field  (September,  1831),  with 
William  Wirt  of  Maryland  as  candidate  for  President.  The 
National  Republicans  followed  in  December,  nominating  Henry 
Clay  of  Kentucky ;  and  the  Jackson  men,  now  calling  them 
selves  Democrats,2  met  in  May,  1832,  and  indorsed  the  ticket, 
Jackson  and  Van  Buren.  At  first  each  state  had  one  vote  in  the 
selection  of  the  candidates,  irrespective  of  the  number  of  dele 
gates  it  sent  to  the  convention ;  but  soon  the  plan  was  adopted, 
which  still  prevails,  of  having  each  state  represented  by  a  number 
of  delegates  twice  as  large  as  its  representation  in  Congress.8 

1  Since  the  foundation  of  our  government  two  great  parties  have  generally 
been  opposed  to  each  other  (Federalists  and  Republicans,  1790-1816  ;  Whigs  and 
Democrats,  1834-1852  ;  Republicans  and  Democrats,  1854  to  the  present).    How 
ever,  many  minor  parties  (or  "  third  parties  ") ,  formed  on  various  issues,  have 
appeared  in  our  politics  since  1830.   The  third  parties  have  seldom  had  enough 
strength  to  carry  a  state  and  so  to  appear  in  the  electoral  column.    In  the  election 
of  1908,  for  example,  seven  tickets  were  in  the  field,  but  only  Taft  and  Bryan 
carried  states. 

2  The  political  parties  are  rather  difficult  to  keep  clearly  distinguished,  owing 
to  the  various  use  of  the  names  Republican  and  Democrat  at  different  times  in 
our  history.   The  following  chart  will  aid  the  student : 

Date 

FEDERALISTS        vs. 
(for  strong  national  govern 
ment) 


1791-1792 


DEMOCRATIC  REPUBLICANS 
(for  strictly  limited  national 

government)  192 

J793  dropped    the    name    Demo 

cratic  and  became  simply 
the  Republicans.  224 

1816  dr.      died  out,  leaving  only  the 

1820  dr.  REPUBLICANS  230 

("  era  of  good  feeling  ") 

who  split  on  the  question  of  "  internal  improvements,"  such 
as  national  aid  for  the  construction  of  canals  and  roads,  and 
the  charter  of  the  National  Bank,  into  two  wings  :  265 

1825-1830      NATIONAL  REPUBLICANS  vs.  DEMOCRATIC  REPUBLICANS 
the  nucleus  of  a  new  party       who  dropped  the  name  Re- 

which,    in     opposition    to  publican  and  became  simply        294 

Jackson,  took  the  name  of 
1834  WHIGS  -vs.  (Jacksonian)  DEMOCRATS 

On  the  great  question  of  slavery  the  Whig  party  went  to 
pieces  soon  after  1850,  and  the  present  Republican  party  was 
organized.  385 

3  At  present  the  Democrats  require  a  two-thirds  vote  of  their  convention  to 
nominate  a  candidate,  while  a  simple  majority  vote  nominates  the  Republican 
candidate. 


See 
page 


294 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


420.  The 
anti-Jackson 
men  form  a 
new  party, 
1834 


421.  The 
composition 
of  the  new 
Whig  party 


>ORN  TO  COMMAND 


All  our  Presidents  and  Vice  Presidents  since  1832  have  been 
nominated  by  national  conventions. 

Jackson  had  not  been  in  office  many  months  before  his  auto 
cratic  conduct  made  him  many  public  opponents  and  private 
enemies.  When  he  issued  his  famous  proclamation  against  the 
milliners  in  South  Carolina,  in  December,  1832,  the  Charleston 
Mercury  came  out  with  a  flamboyant  article  against  him,  in 

which  it  declared:  "An  in 
furiated  administration  has 
been  driven  to  the  use  of 
brute  force.  ...  If  this  Re 
public  has  found  a  master, 
let  us  not  live  his  subjects  !  " 
Recalling  the  Revolutionary 
days,  when  our  forefathers 
fought  against  the  "  tyrant 
King  George  the  Third,"  it 
suggested  that  the  opponents 
of  "  King  Andrew  "  revive 
the  old  name  of  Whigs,  which 
in  the  eighteenth  century 
stood  for  the  foes  of  execu 
tive  tyranny.  As  the  war  on 
the  United  States  Bank  and 
the 'removal  of  the  govern 
ment's  deposits  in  1833  made 
the  President  enemies  in  the  North  as  well  as  in  the  South,  the 
anti-Jackson  men  became  sufficiently  numerous  to  form  a  new 
party.  In  1834  they  took  the  name  of  Whigs,  which  the 
Charleston  editor  had  suggested. 

The  nucleus  of  the  Whig  party  was  the  faithful  group  of 
National  Republicans,  led  by  Henry  Clay,  with  their  devotion 
to  a  high  tariff,  the  National  Bank,  and  internal  improvements 
at  the  cost  of  the  government  —  the  so-called  "  American 
System."  To  these  were  added  now  the  Southerners,  whom 


KING  ANDREW  THE  FIRST. 


Cartoon  used  in  the  Campaign 
of  1832 


The  Reign  of  A  ndrew  Jackson  "  295 

Jackson  had  offended  by  his  attack  on  the  rights  of  the  states, 
and  people  from  all  sections  of  the  country  who  were  opposed 
to  his  financial  policy,  his  u  personal"  conduct  of  the  govern 
ment  through  a  group  of  favorites,  and  his  adoption  of  the 
odious  spoils  system.  It  was  essentially  an  anti-Jackson  party. 

The  Whigs  were  not  quite  strong  enough  in  1836  to  defeat  422.  Election 
Jackson's  chief  henchman  and  personal  choice  for  the  presidency,  ?836anBuren' 
Martin  Van  Buren  of  New  York.    Van  Buren  had  been  Vice 
President  during  Jackson's  second  term,  and  it  was  a  great 
triumph  for  the  old  hero  of  New  Orleans  over  the  Senate,  which 
had  passed  a  vote  of  censure  on  him,  when  he  saw  Van  Buren, 
whom  the  Senate  had  formerly  rejected  as  minister  to  England, 
sworn  into  the  presidency  by  Chief  Justice  Taney,  whom  it  had 
likewise  formerly  refused  to  confirm  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

Van  Buren,  although  he  was  one  of  the  most  adroit  and  able  423.  van 
politicians  in  our  history,  and  had  come  into  office  pledged  to 
"  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  his  illustrious  predecessor,"  failed  to 
hold  the  Democratic  party  together  and  to  lead  it  to  victory  in 
1840.  Both  public  and  private  causes  conspired  to  his  defeat. 
The  financial  panic  of  1837,  which  followed  Jackson's  issue  of 
the  Specie  Circular,  came  in  Van  Buren's  administration,  and 
quite  naturally  he  was  blamed  for  it  by  the  unthinking  majority. 
Moreover,  Van  Buren  was  an  aristocratic  New  Yorker,  a  rich 
bachelor,  who,  according  to  campaign  orators,  lived  in  solitary 
splendor  at  the  White  House,  eating  off  golden  plates  and 
drinking  costly  wines  from  silver  coolers.  The  reputation  for 
such  conduct,  however  exaggerated  the  details,  was  little  likely 
to  win  for  Van  Buren  the  support  which  the  "  unspoiled  West " 
had  given  to  the  rough  old  hero,  Andrew  Jackson.  And  it  is 
not  strange  that  when  the  Whigs  nominated  William  Henry 
Harrison  of  Ohio  —  like  Jackson  a  frontiersman  and  Indian 
fighter,  a  hero  of  the  War  of  1812,  and  a  plain,  rugged,  honest 
man  of  the  people  —  the  West  flocked  to  his  banner  and  car 
ried  him  triumphantly  into  the  presidency  in  a  second  "  demo 
cratic  revolution." 


296 


National  versus  Sectional  Interests 


424.  why 


n" 


425.  The 
famous  "hard- 
cider  cam 
paign  "  of 
1840,  and  the 
triumph  of 
Harrison 


The  presidential  campaign  of  1840  was  most  exciting  and 
spectacular.  Henry  Clay,  the  towering  genius  of  the  Whig 
Party'  should  nave  been  the  candidate,  and  confidently  expected 
the  nomination.  But  Clay's  very  prominence  was  against  him. 
He  had  been  badly  beaten  in  the  election  of  1832  for  his  mis 
take  in  forcing  the  Bank  charter  into  politics  to  defeat  Jackson. 
Many  old  Jackson  men,  disgusted  with  Van  Buren,  could  be 
counted  on  to  vote  for  any  other  Whig  nominee  than  Jackson's 


The  Eagle  of  Liberty, 
the  Serpent 
OJV. 


Tru£  American  Ticltet. 

For  President. 

WM.  HENRY  HARRISON. 


Campaign  Emblems,  1840 

lifelong  enemy,  Clay.  And  finally  the  growing  antislavery  senti 
ment  of  the  North  made  it  desirable  for  the  Whigs  to  oppose  to 
Van  Buren  (himself  an  antislavery  man  from  a  free  state)  not  the 
slaveholder  Henry  Clay,  but  a  representative  of  the  free  North 
who  could  also  appeal  to  the  frontier  enthusiasm  of  the  new  West. 
A  Democratic  paper  in  Baltimore  made  the  sneering  comment 
on  the  choice  of  Harrison :  "  Give  him  a  barrel  of  hard  cider 
and  settle  $2000  a  year  on  him,  and  ...  he  will  sit  the  re 
mainder  of  his  days  in  his  Log  Cabin  ...  by  the  side  of  his  fire 
studying  moral  philosophy."  The  Whigs  immediately  took  up 


"  The  Reign  of  Andrew  Jackson  " 


297 


the  challenge,  and  made  the  homely  virtues  and  simple  tastes 
of  the  old  hero,  who  had  spent  his  nearly  seventy  years  in  the 
defense  and  service  of  his  country,  the  chief  issue  of  the  cam 
paign.  "  Yes,  he  has  lived  long  enough  in  the  Log  Cabin," 
they  said,  "  and  we  intend  to  give  him  rent-free  after  March  4, 
1841,  the  great  White  House  at  Washington."  Hard  cider  was 
the  beverage  on  tap  at  the  Whig  rallies  all  over  the  country. 
The  feature  of  every  Whig  procession  was  its  Log  Cabin,  with 

the  latchstring  out  and  the 
coonskin  nailed  to  the  door, 
wheeled  along  to  the  uproar 
ious  shouts  of  "  Tippecanoe1 
and  Tyler  too,"  and  "  Van, 
Van  is  a  used-up  man  !  " 
The  Whig  ticket  swept  the 
country.  Harrison  got  234 
electoral  votes  to  90  for  Van 
Buren.  The  Whigs  secured 
both  branches  of  Congress 
too,  with  a  majority  of  seven 
in  the  Senate  and  forty-four 
in  the  House. 

Harrison's  decisive  victory  435.  Condi- 
in  1840  marks  the  end  of  the  «£?'**£ 
"  reign  of  Andrew  Jackson."  Jacksonian 


The  Whig  Victory  of  1840 
The  electoral  vote 

The    date    also    marks    the 

moment  when  the  different  sections  of  our  country  had  become 
fully  conscious  of  their  conflicting  interests.  Two  irreconcilable 
forms  of  civilization  had  been  developing  during  the  quarter  of 
a  century  which  followed  the  War  of  1812.  In  the  North  the 
democratic,  diversified  life  of  manufacture  and  commerce  was 
attended  by  rapid  growth  of  population  through  natural  increase 
and  immigration  from  Europe.  In  the  South  a  more  stationary 

1  In  reference  to  Harrison's  victory  over  Tecumseh  at  Tippecanoe  Creek, 
in  1811  (see  above,  p.  245). 


epoch   1840 


298  National  versus  Sectional  Interests 

and  aristocratic  civilization  was  founded  on  the  wealth  of  the  cot 
ton  fields,  which  were  cultivated  by  an  army  of  2,000,000  negro 
slaves.  The  conflict  of  these  two  forms  of  civilization,  with  their 
utterly  opposite  economic  needs,  their  diverging  political  views  of 
the  relative  rights  of  the  states  and  the  Union,  their  jealousy  of 
each  other's  extension  into  the  West,  and  their  deepening  dis 
agreement  as  to  the  moral  right  of  one  man  to  hold  another 
man  in  bondage,  began  about  1840  to  overshadow  all  the  other 
questions  of  the  period  which  we  have  been  studying, — the  Bank, 
the  tariff,  the  public  lands,  and  internal  improvements.  Not 
a  national  election  was  held  from  1840  to  the  Civil  War  that  did 
not  turn  chiefly  or  wholly  on  the  slavery  issue.  At  the  close  of 
his  term  of  office  Jackson  had  written  to  Congress,  "  Unless 
agitation  on  this  point  [slavery]  cease,  it  will  divide  the  Union." 
And  in  fact  the  systems  of  North  and  South  were  becoming  "  too 
unlike  to  exist  in  the  same  nation."  What  would  the  outcome 
be  ?  Should  the  Union  be  divided,  or  should  the  institution  of 
slavery  be  abolished  ? 

REFERENCES 

Nullification  :  J.  B.  MACMASTER,  History  of  the  People  of  the  United 
States,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  148-177;  WILLIAM  MACDONALD,  Jacksonian  De 
mocracy  (American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  iv-vi;  Select  Documents  of 
United  States  History,  1776-1861,  Nos.  53,  55,  56  ;  D.  F.  HOUSTON,  A 
Critical  Study  of  Nullification  in  South  Carolina  (Harvard  Historical 
Studies,  Vol.  Ill) ;  J.  W.  BURGESS,  The  Middle  Period,  chap,  x ;  H.  VON 
HOLST,  Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  I,  chap,  xii  ; 
EDWARD  STAN  WOOD,  American  Tariff  Controversies  of '  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  chap,  ix;  C.  H.  PECK,  The  Jacksonian  Epoch,  chap,  v;  J.  S. 
BASSETT,  Andrew  Jackson,  chap.  xxvi. 

The  War  on  the  Bank  :  MACMASTER,  Vol.  VI,  chap,  lix ;  MACDONALD, 
Jacksonian  Democracy,  chaps,  vii,  xiii ;  Select  Documents,  Nos.  46,  50,  51, 
52,  54,  57-62  ;  WOODROW  WILSON,  History  of  the  American  People, 
Vol.  IV,  chap,  ii ;  RALPH  H.  CATTERALL,  The  Second  Bank  of  the 
United  States  ;  BURGESS,  chaps,  ix,  xii ;  D.  R.  DEWEY,  Financial  History 
of  the  United  States,  chap.  ix.  ;  BASSETT,  chaps,  xxvii,  xxviii.  • 

A  New  Party :  MACDONALD,  Jacksonian  Democracy,  chaps,  xi,  xiv, 
xvii;  J.  A.  WOODBURN,  Political  Parties  and  Party  Problems  in  the 


"  The  Reign  of  Andrew  Jackson  "  299 

United  States,  chap,  iv ;  MACMASTER,  Vol.  VI,  chap.  Ixix ;  EDWARD 
STANWOOD,  History  of  the  Presidency,  chaps,  xv,  xvi ;  E.  E.  SPARKS, 
The  Men  who  made  the  Nation,  chap,  ix ;  PECK,  chap,  xi ;  biographies 
of  Jackson  by  W.  G.  BROWN  (very  brief),  WILLIAM  G.  SUMNER 
(American  Statesmen  Series),  A.  C.  BUELL  (2  vols.),  and  J.  S.  BASSETT 

(2  VOls.). 

TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  Foreign  Affairs  in  Jackson's  Administration:  J.  D.  RICHARDSON, 
Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  Vol.  II,  pp.  437  ff. ;  VON  HOLST, 
Vol.  II,  pp.  553-570 ;    MACMASTER,  Vol.  VI,  pp.   236-242,  299-303, 
421-446;  J.  W.  FOSTER,  A  Century  of  American   Diplomacy,  pp.  273- 
281 ;  BASSETT,  pp.  656-683 ;  MACDONALD,  Jacksonian  Democracy,  pp. 
200-218. 

2.  The  Webster-Hayne  Debate :  EDWARD  EVERETT,  in  North  Ameri 
can  Review,  Vol.  XXXI,  pp.  462-546;  J.  B.  MACMASTER,  in  Century 
Magazine,  Vol.  LXII,  pp.  228-246;    MACDONALD,  Select  Documents, 
Nos.  47-49;    ALEXANDER  JOHNSTON  (ed.  Woodburn),  American   Ora 
tions,  Vol.  I,  pp.  231-302. 

3.  Coercing  South  Carolina:  BASSETT,  pp.  552-583;  T.  H.  BENTON, 
Thirty  Years'  View,  Vol.  I,  chaps.  Ixxx-lxxxvi ;  E.  P.  POWELL,  Nulli 
fication  and  Secession  in  the  United  States,  pp.  262-288,  and  Appendix, 
pp.  298-324 ;  MACDONALD,  Select  Documents,  No.  56 ;  HOUSTON,  pp. 
106-133  ;  T.  D.  JERVEY,  Robert  Y.  Hayne  and  his  Times,  pp.  297-356. 

4.  Jackson  the  Autocrat :  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Con 
temporaries.  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  158,  160  ;   MACDONALD,  Select  Documents, 
Nos.  64,  68;    CARL   R.   FISH,   The   Civil  Service   and  the   Patronage, 
pp.  105-133;  VON  HOLST,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1-39;  BUELL,  Vol.  II,  pp.  383- 
412  ;  C.  A.  DAVIS,  Major  Jack  Dowling's  Letters  (a  satire  on  Jackson) ; 
HIGGINSON  and  MACDONALD,  History  of  the  United  States,  pp.  411-428. 

5.  Travel  and  Transportation  in  Jackson's  Day :  A.  B.  HART,  Slavery 
and  Abolition  (American  Nation  Series),  pp.  33-48;  American  History 
told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  165-168  ;  JOSIAH  QuiNCY,  Figures 
of  the  Past,  pp.  188-208  ;  MACMASTER,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  77-95  ;  MACDONALD, 
Jacksonian   Democracy,    pp.    136-147 ;    CHARLES    DICKENS,    American 
Notes  (ed.  of  1842). 


PART  V.  SLAVERY  AND  THE 
WEST 


PART  V.    SLAVERY  AND  THE 
WEST 

CHAPTER  XI 

THE  GATHERING  CLOUD 

SLAVERY  IN  THE  COLONIES 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  mentioned  only  incidentally  and  oc 
casionally  the  institution  which  has  played  the  most  important 
part  in  the  history  of  our  country,  —  negro  slavery.  We  must 
turn  back  now  to  trace  briefly  the  development  of  that  institu 
tion  from  the  earliest  colonial  days  down  to  the  middle  decades 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  it  absorbed  and  superseded  all 
other  national  issues,  and  led  directly  to  the  Civil  War  for  the 
preservation  of  the  Union. 

Before  Peter  Minuit  bought  the  island  of  Manhattan  from  427.  The  in- 
the  Indians,  even  before  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  landed  at  Plymouth, 


a  Dutch  trading  vessel  brought  twenty  negro  slaves  from  the  JJ*  c°lonies. 

West  Indies  to  the  Virginia  colony  at  Jamestown.    This  was  in 

1619,  the  very  year  in  which  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses 

first  met.    So  by  a  strange  coincidence,  at  the  same  moment  of 

history  the  English  settlements  in  America  saw  the  introduction 

of  the  African  bondsman  and  of  the  elected  representative  —  the 

beginning  of  slavery  and  of  democracy. 

Slavery  grew  but  slowly  in  the  colonies.    During  the  whole  of  428.  Growth 
the  seventeenth  century  probably  not  more  than  25,000  negroes 
were  brought  to  our  shores  to  work  in  the  tobacco  and  rice 
fields  of  the  South,  or  to  serve  as  butlers,  maids,  and  coachmen 

303 


304  Slavery  and  the  West 

in  the  wealthier  families  of  the  middle  and  northern  colonies. 
The  eighteenth  century,  however,  saw  a  great  increase  in  the  im 
portation  of  slaves  into  the  colonies.  Great  Britain,  victorious 
in  a  long  war  with  France  and  Spain  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century  (1701-1713),  demanded  as  one  of  the  terms  of  peace 
the  monopoly  of  the  sorry  business  of  carrying  negroes  from 
the  African  coast  to  the  colonies  of  the  New  World.  Freed 
from  French  and  Spanish  competition,  this  slave  traffic  proved 
profitable  to  the  English  companies  that  were  engaged  in  it. 
Reputable  business  firms,  high  nobles,  even  Queen  Anne  herself 
and  her  courtiers,  had  large  sums  of  money  invested  in  the  slave 
trade,  from  which  the  dividends  sometimes  mounted  to  fortunes. 

429.  The  The  slave  hunters  kidnaped  the  negroes  in  Africa,  chained 
« middle          them  together  in  gangs,  and  packed  them  closely  into  the  stifling 
passage "         holds  of  their  narrow  wooden  ships,  to  suffer  torments  on  the 

tropical  voyage  from  the  African  coast  to  the  West  Indies. 
When  the  hatches  were  battened  down  in  bad  weather  a  dozen 
of  the  poor  wretches  often  suffocated,  and  their  bodies  were  un 
ceremoniously  flung  overboard.  The  brutal  ship  captains  even 
threw  sick  negroes  overboard  deliberately,  because  they  were 
insured  against  the  loss  of  their  "  cargo  "  by  drowning,  but  not 
by  death  from  disease.  This  awful  voyage  was  called  the  "  middle 
passage,"  because  it  was  the  second  leg  of  a  triangular  voyage 
from  which  the  British  and  colonial  captains  derived  large  profits. 
They  took  rum  from  the  New  England  distilleries  to  Africa,  to 
debauch  the  innocent  natives,  whom  they  seized  and  brought  to 
the  West  Indies  to  exchange  for  sugar  and  for  molasses  to  make 
more  rum.  So  rum,  negroes,  and  molasses  made  the  endless 
chain  of  traffic  which  enslaved  the  unoffending  African,  and 
put  thousands  of  pounds  into  the  pockets  of  the  "  enlightened  " 
merchants  and  courtiers  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

430.  The  The  horrors  of  the  middle  passage  moved  the  colonists  at 
British  crown     . 

vetoes  coio-     times  to  protest  against  the  slave  trade.    The  burgesses  of  Vir- 

aga\ns?ttieS    Smia>  for  example,  passed  several  bills  forbidding  the  further 
slave  trade       importation   of   negro  slaves  into  the  colony ;  but  the  British 


The  Gathering  Cloud  305 

crown,  which  exercised  the  right  to  veto  acts  of  the  colonial 
legislatures,  though  it  had  ceased  to  veto  acts  of  Parliament, 
refused  to  allow  these  laws  to  stand.1  We  must  remember  in  all 
our  study  and  judgment  of  the  problems  which  the  presence  of 
the  negro  in  the  'South  has  forced  upon  our  country,  that  it  was 
not  so  much  the  colonists  as  the  British  merchants  and  capitalists 
who  were  responsible  for  the  slave  traffic  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  ;  and  that  among  the  colonists  themselves  it  was  not  the 
men  of  the  South  alone  who  were  at  fault,  since  the  New  Eng 
land  rum  distillers  were  responsible  for  bringing  thousands  of 
negroes  from  Africa  to  sell  as  slaves  in  the  West  Indies. 

We  find  it  hard  to  realize  the  inhumanity  of  earlier  genera-  431.  slavery 
tions.  That  our  colonial  forefathers  could  have  been  so  jealous  Jhe^ionies 
for  the  protection  of  their  own  rights  and  freedom  and  for  the 
proper  forms  of  the  worship  of  God,  and  still  hold  human  beings 
in  bondage,  seems  to  us  utterly  inconsistent.  Yet  it  is  true  that 
there  was  almost  no  sentiment  against  negro  slavery  in  the  col 
onies.  All  the  colonial  legislatures  recognized  slavery  as  legal. 
Only  a  few  individuals  protested  against  it.  Even  some  of  the 
Friends  (or  Quakers),  generally  recognized  as  the  most  brotherly 
of  all  the  Christian  sects,  kept  slaves  down  to  the  time  of  the 
American  Revolution.2 

As  the  different  types  of  colonial  industry  developed,  —  ship-  432.  The 
ping,  fishing,  farming  in  the  North,  and  the  cultivation  of  the 
large  tobacco,  cotton,  and  rice  plantations  in   the  South,  —  it  South 
became  evident  that  the  home  of  the  negro  was  to  be  that  part 
of  our  land  whose  climate  fitted  his  physique  and  whose  labor 
fitted  his  intellect.    As  early  as   1715    the  negroes  comprised 
25  per  cent  of  the  population  of  the   colonies   south  of  the 

1  One  of  the  charges  brought  against  George  III  by  Thomas  Jefferson  in  the 
original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  that  he  had  encouraged 
the  slave  trade,  "  violating  the  most  sacred  rights  of  life  and  liberty  in  the  persons 
of  a  distant  people  [the  Africans]  who  never  offended  him,  captivating  and  carry 
ing  them  into  slavery  in  another  hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable  death  in  their 
transportation  thither." 

2  The  Friends  of  Germantown,  Pennsylvania,  protested  against  the  practice 
of  slavery  as  early  as  1688. 


306 


Slavery  and  the  West 


Potomac  River,  in  comparison  with  9  per  cent  in  the  middle 
colonies  and  less  than  3  per  cent  in  New  England.  South  Caro 
lina  already  had,  as  she  has  had  ever  since,  a  larger  negro  than 
white  population.  Before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century 
every  state  north  of  Maryland  except  New  Jersey  had  pro 
vided  for  the  immediate  or  gradual  abolition  of  slavery,  while 
Whitney's  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  in  1794  had  fixed 
the  institution  firmly  on  the  South.  The  English  colonies  in 
America,  therefore,  were  not  a  free  land  which  was  gradually 
encroached  upon  by  slavery,  but  a  land  in  all  of  whose  extent 
slavery  was  at  first 
recognized  by  law, 
and  only  later  ex 
cluded  from  those 
portions  where  it 
was  economically 
unprofitable. 

A  small  number 
of   plantation  own- 


433.  Hu 
manitarian 
views  of 

s™ners  ers> like  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Madison, 
and 


The  Cotton  Gin 


Randolph,   in 
fluenced   no    doubt 

by  the  spirit  of  humanity  and  philanthropy  which  was  abroad  in 
the  later  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  had  misgivings  as  to 
the  justice  of  holding  slaves.  The  considerable  number  of  free 
negroes  in  the  South  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  shows  how 
many  slaves  were  allowed  to  purchase  their  liberty  or  received 
it  as  a  gift  from  their  masters.  Still,  the  economic  argument  was 
stronger  than  the  moral  one.  No  planter  could  afford  to  pay 
wages  to  free  negroes  when  his  neighbor  employed  slaves. 
However  much  the  enlightened  men  of  the  South  deplored  the 
existence  of  slavery  from  the  point  of  view  of  ethics  and 
humanity,  they  found  themselves  part  of  an  industrial  system 
which  seemed  to  demand  the  negro  slave  for  its  very  existence. 


The  Gathering  Cloud  307 

Naturally  the  spirit  of  liberty  aroused  at  the  time  of  the  Amer-  434.  Anti- 
ican  Revolution  touched  the  question  of  negro  slavery.  The 
Continental  Congress  in  1774  and  again  in  1776  forbade  the 
further  importation  of  slaves  into  the  colonies.  The  first  anti- 
slavery  society  was  formed  at  Philadelphia  in  the  very  year  of 
the  battles  of  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill  (1775).  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  its  president  the  last  few  years  of  his  life.  In  his 
"  Notes  on  Virginia,"  published  just  after  the  close  of  the  war 
(1784),  Thomas  Jefferson,  one  of  the  most  pronounced  of  the 
antislavery  slaveholders,  suggested  that  the  negroes  might  be 
purchased  by  the  state  and  colonized,  an  idea  which  was  cher 
ished  by  many  antislavery  statesmen,  including  Abraham  Lincoln, 
up  to  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War.  The  one  splendid  accom 
plishment  of  the  antislavery  spirit  of  the  Revolutionary  epoch 
was  the  dedication  to  perpetual  freedom  of  the  vast  territory 
between  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  and  the  Great  Lakes, 
by  the  Northwest  Ordinance  of  1787  (p.  I65).1 

The  Constitution  of  the  LTnited  States  was  being  framed  during  435.  slavery 
the  very  same  days  that  the  Northwest  Ordinance  was  debated.  the°consti-  Y 
Although  there  were  men  in  the  Convention  at  Philadelphia  tution 
who  would  gladly  have  seen  slavery  abolished  in  the  United 
States,  that  subject  was  not  discussed,  because  nobody  seri 
ously  thought  that  the  abolition  of  slavery  lay  within  the  powers 
of  the  Convention.  The  only  questions  considered  were :  first, 
Whether  the  national  government,  which  was  to  have  control  of 
foreign  commerce  and  immigration,  should  allow  any  more  negro 
slaves  to  be  brought  to  the  United  States  ;  and  second,  What  was 
the  political  status  of  those  negroes  who  were  already  in  thq 
country.  We  have  already  seen  in  our  study  of  the  Constitution 
(p.  170)  how  the  Convention  arrived  at  compromises  on  both 
these  points  by  prohibiting  Congress  from  interfering  with  the 
slave  trade  for  a  period  of  twenty  years  (until  1808),  and  by 
counting  three  fifths  of  the  negro  population  in  making  up  the 

1  A  bill  introduced  into  the  Congress  by  Jefferson  in  1784,  to  make  all  the 
territory  west  of  the  Alleghenies  free  soil,  was  lost  by  only  one  vote. 


308 


Slavery  and  the  West 


census  of  the  states  for  representation  in  Congress.  The  im 
portant  point  for  us  here  is  not  the  exact  form  of  compromise 
adopted,  but  rather  the  fact  that  the  men  who  made  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  not  only  did  not  contemplate  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  but  even  agreed  that  the  importation  of 
slaves  from  Africa  and  the  West  Indies  should  not  be  inter 
fered  with  for  a  score  of  years,  —  a  period  long  enough  to 
supply  the  South  with  sufficient  slaves  to  insure  the  indefinite 
continuance  of  the  institution.1 

436.  sum-          Thus  the  history  of  slavery  during  our  colonial  period  presents 
Saveryfsitua-  a  sad  picture  of  violence,  greed,  and  stunted  moral  sense.    Our 

tion  in  the       forefathers 'endured  the  evils  of  the  slave  system  for  the  sake  of 
colonial  days  * 

the  profits  it  yielded.    A  few  large  slaveholders,  like  Jefferson 

and  Washington,  knew  that  slavery  was  a  violation  of  the  moral 
law,2  but  they  could  not  foresee  the  enormity  of  the  evil  which 
slavery  was  to  entail  upon  a  future  generation  in  the  South. 
And  so,  with  mingled  feelings  of  dismay  at  the  growing  num 
bers  of  slaves  and  a  vague  hope  that  "  somehow  good  might  be 
the  final  goal  of  ill,"  the  men  who  freed  our  country  from  politi 
cal  oppression  by  a  tyrannical  king  in  England,  left  it  exposed 
to  a  social  curse  within  its  own  border  more  serious  than  unjust 
taxation  or  harsh  laws  of  trade. 


abohsh  siav- 


THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE 

437.  con-  A  little  group  of  antislavery  people  in  the  North  had  from 

tne  ^rst  been  dissatisfied  with  the  tolerant  attitude  of  the  Con- 
stitution  toward  slavery.  In  Washington's  first  administration 
(1790)  they  began  a  series  of  petitions  to  Congress  for  the 

1  It  must  in  fairness  be  said  that  the  members  of  the  Convention  could  not 
foresee  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  (1794)  and  the  immense  increase  in  the 
demand  for  slaves  which  that  invention  would  cause. 

2  Jefferson,  in  discussing  slavery,  said,  "  I  tremble  for  my  country  when  I 
reflect  that  God  is  just."   Washington  wrote  to  his  secretary,  Tobias  Lear,  that 
he  was  anxious  to  "  dispose  of  a  certain  kind  of  property  [negro  slaves]  as  soon 
as  possible."   John  Randolph  (who  liberated  his  slaves)  declared  that  "  all  other 
misfortunes  of  life  were  small  compared  with  being  born  -a  master  of  slaves." 


The  Gathering  Cloud  309 

abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United  States,  which  were  continued 
for  three  quarters  of  a  century,  to  the  close  of  the  Civil  War. 
Congress  returned  to  the  first  petition  of  1790  the  same  answer 
that  it  gave  to  all  the  later  ones,  namely,  that  slavery,  being  a 
"  domestic  institution,"  was  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  states,  not 
of  the  national  government.  Even  the  repeated  attempts  to  get 
Congress  to  impose  a  tax  of  $10  a  head  on  imported  slaves, 
which  was  authorized  by  the  Constitution,  all  failed.  To  be  sure 
Congress  did,  at  the  expiration  of  the  twenty-year  period  pre 
scribed  by  the  Constitution,  forbid  the  further  importation  of 
African  slaves  (from  January  i,  1808);  but  that  was  the  only 

piece  of  legislation  hostile  to 

Cay  of  .to/lalt,.  >0o»g     slavery   passed    by    Congress 

the  thirt  ears  from 


longed  <o  Capt.  Hugh  H<*t.      the    inauguration    of    George 

whoever  brings  the  laid  fioy       TT,     ,. 

(be  Subfctibcr  at  £w#*  orro  Washington    to    the    Missouri 

the  Work  Hoofe  in  Charles  <tov,e.  ftall  ^  ™'™  ~f     Q 

have  3  /  reward     On  thccahfrar;  who-  Compromise  of  1820. 

ever  harbour,  the  faid  Boy,  may  depend  Qn  the  Other  hand,   the  fa-   438.  Legisla- 

Bfon-btingfcverdyprofccorcd,  by  '  tion  favorable 

Sknuu  Cbijlam.  vors  which  slavery  received  at  to  slavery, 

WALTER  LUNBM>  Ter-  the  hands  of  Congress  during  1790-18x9  ' 

Advertisement  for  a  Run-  this  period  were  so  m          and 

away  Slave 

so  great  that  the  slaveholders 

came  generally  to  regard  their  institution  as  sanctioned  by  the 
will  of  the  nation.  In  1  792  Kentucky  was  admitted  to  the  Union 
with  a  constitution  which  sanctioned  slavery.  In  1793  Congress 
passed  a  fugitive-slave  law,  allowing  a  slave  owner  to  reclaim  a 
runaway  negro  in  any  state  in  the  Union  by  a  mere  decision  of 
the  local  judge,  without  jury  trial.  In  1796  Congress  accepted 
North  Carolina's  cession  of  land  west  of  the  Alleghenies,  promis 
ing  not  to  prohibit  slavery  therein  ;  and  immediately  Tennessee, 
which  lay  within  this  territory,  was  admitted  as  a  slaveholding 
state.  In  1798  the  territory  of  Mississippi  was  organized,  and 
only  twelve  votes  were  cast  in  Congress  in  favor  of  excluding 
slavery  from  its  borders.  In  1803  the  immense  territory  of 
Louisiana  was  purchased  from  Napoleon  under  terms  which 


3io 


Slavery  and  the  West 


439.  The 
Missouri  bill 
and  the 
Tallmadge 
amendment, 
1819 


440.    Popular 
excitement 
over  the 
Missouri  bill 


protected  slavery  wherever  it  already  existed  in  the  territory.  In 
1805  Congress,  by  a  vote  of  77  to  31,  defeated  a  bill  to  emanci 
pate  the  slaves  in  the  national  domain  of  the  District  of  Colum 
bia.  In  1812  the  lower  end  of  the  Louisiana  territory  was 
admitted  to  the  Union  as  the  state  of  Louisiana,  with  slavery  — 
the  third  slave  state  to  be  admitted  since  the  organization  of  the 
government,  as  against  the  two  free  states  of  Vermont  (1791) 
and  Ohio  (1803). 

It  is  no  wonder,  in  view  of  such  generous  recognition  of  the 
slavery  interests,  that  the  Southerners  were  taken  by  surprise  at 
the  serious  opposition  aroused  in  Congress  when  the  slave- 
holding  territory  of  Missouri *  applied  for  admission  to  the  Union 
as  a  state  in  the  autumn  of  1818.  The  bill  for  the  admission 
of  Missouri  was  laid  before  the  House  of  Representatives  for 
debate  on  February  13,  1819.  The  same  day  James  Tallmadge 
of  New  York  moved  as  an  amendment  to  the  bill,  "  That  the 
further  introduction  of  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude  be  pro 
hibited  .  .  .  and  that  all  children  born  within  the  said  state 
after  admission  thereof  into  the  Union  shall  be  free  at  the  age 
of  25  years."  The  amendment  passed  the  House  by  a  narrow 
margin,  but  was  promptly  and  decisively  rejected  by  the  Senate 
(31  to  7);  and  the  Congressional  session  of  1818-1819  came 
to  an  end  with  Missouri's  application  for  statehood  still  pending. 

During  the  summer  of  1819  excitement  over  the  Missouri 
question  was  aroused  throughout  the  country.  Mass  meetings 
were  held  in  the  Northern  states  condemning  the  extension 
of  slavery,  and  in  the  Southern  states  demanding  the  rights  of 
the  slave  owners  under  the  Constitution.  The  legislatures  of 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Ohio,  and  even  slave- 
holding  Delaware  passed  resolutions  against  the  admission  of 
Missouri  to  the  Union  with  slavery.  When  Congress  met  in 
December,  1819,  it  was  overwhelmed  with  petitions  for  and 
against  the  Tallmadge  amendment. 


1  When  the  state  of  Louisiana  was  formed  in  1811,  the  name  of  the  Louisiana 
territory  above  33°  was  changed  to  the  "  Territory  of  Missouri." 


The  Gathering  Cloud  311 

There  were  several  important  points  involved  in  the  admission  441.  impor- 
of  Missouri.  In  the  first  place,  there  was  an  equal  number  of 
free  and  slave  states  (eleven  each)  in  the  Union  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1819,  which  made  an  even  balance  between  the  two 
sections  in  the  Senate.  Secondly,  Missouri  was  to  be  the  first 
state  wholly  west  of  the  Mississippi  River  created  out  of  terri 
tory  acquired  since  the  formation  of  the  Union  ;  and  it  was  felt 
that  if  the  first  state  formed  from  this  territory  were  opened  to 
slavery,  a  precedent  would  thereby  be  established  for  admitting 
all  future  states  on  the  same  basis.  When  Rufus  King  of  New 
York  declared  that  we  must  have  "  free  citizens  to  defend  our 
western  borders,"  he  drew  down  upon  him  the  wrath  of  the 
advocates  of  slavery  in  Congress.  "They  gnawed  their  lips  and 
clenched  their  fists  as  they  heard  him,"  wrote  John  Quincy 
Adams  in  his  diary.  A  third  point  to  consider  in  the  Missouri 
question  was  the  treaty  of  purchase  by  which  the  territory  was 
acquired  from  Napoleon.  By  the  third  article  of  that  treaty 
the  inhabitants  of  the  territory  were  guaranteed  "  protection  of 
their  liberty,  property,  and  religion."  Many  planters  had  taken 
their  slaves  into  the  Missouri  territory,  relying  on  this  guarantee. 
Could  Congress  now  fairly  deprive  them  of  their  "  property  "  by 
emancipating  all  negroes  born  in  the  new  state  ? 

But  the  most  serious  question  involved  touched  the  power  of  443.  Has 
Congress  under  the  Constitution  to  pass  the  Tallmadge  amend- 


ment.    Congress  had  the  express  power  to  "  admit  new  states  P°se  c<m<ii- 

.     TT    .        .t.-n        TI  •  tions  on  new 

to  this  U  nion.      But  did  it  have  the  right  to  impose  restrictions  states  for 

on  new  states  as  a  condition  of  admission  ?  The  Tallmadge  men 
argued  that  the  power  to  admit  necessarily  implied  the  power  to 
refuse  to  admit,  and  hence  the  power  to  make  conditions  on  which 
it  would  admit  new  states  to  the  Union.  They  cited  the  case  of 
the  admission  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  which  had  been  re 
quired  to  frame  antislavery  constitutions.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
opponents  of  the  amendment  declared  that  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois  might  legally  have  insisted,  when  they  became  states, 
on  determining  for  themselves  the  nature  of  their  "  domestic 


312  Slavery  and  the  West 

institutions,"  which  had  been  prescribed  for  them  by  Congress  so 
long  as  they  were  a  part  of  the  Northwest  Territory.  For  Con 
gress  to  determine  on  what  terms  a  state  should  come  into  the 
Union,  they  argued,  would  be  to  substitute  for  our  federal  Union 
of  equal  states  a  centralized  despotism  ;  for  could  not  Congress, 
with  such  power,  reduce  a  state  to  the  most  abject  position  of 
dependence  !  The  "  Union  "  then  would  be  a  union  between  a 
giant  Congress  and  pigmy  states,  between  absolutism  and  impo 
tence.  The  states  which  Congress  should  admit  to  the  Union 
must  have  the  same  powers  and  privileges  as  the  states  which 
originally  united  to  form  the  Union. 

443.  south-         Confident   that   their  constitutional   arguments   for    slavery 
for  thtPSten-  were  sound,  the  Southern  orators  proceeded  to  show  not  only 
sjon  of  that  the  institution  was  legal  but  that  its  extension  into  the 

slavery 

new  West  was  desirable.  Granted  that  slavery  was  a  moral  evil, 
would  it  not  be  better,  they  said,  to  diminish  the  evil  by  spreading 
it  ?  Would  not  the  black  cloud  be  lightened  by  diffusion  ?  Since 
not  another  negro  slave  was  to  be  brought  to  America,  would 
not  the  evils  arising  from  those  already  here  be  lessened  the 
more  widely  the  slaves  were  scattered  ? 

444.  A  com-         Early  in  the  session  of  1819-1820  an  event  occurred  which  en- 
promise  meas-     ,  ,    ,    \ 

ure  intro-        abled  the  proslavery  Senate  and  the  antislavery  House  to  come 

to  an  agreement  on  the  Missouri  question.  The  province  of 
Maine,  which  since  1677  had  been  a  part  of  Massachusetts  (see 
p.  48),  got  the  consent  of  Massachusetts  to  separate  from  it 
and  apply  to  Congress  for  statehood.  Accordingly,  in  Decem 
ber,  1819,  Mafne,  with  an  antislavery  constitution  already  pre 
pared,  asked  for  admission  into  the  Union.  By  way  of  com 
promise,  to  end  the  debate,  the  Senate  combined  the  Maine 
and  Missouri  bills,  and  added  to  them,  in  the  place  of  the 
Tallmadge  amendment,  one  by  Senator  Thomas  of  Illinois, 
which  prohibited  slavery  in  all  the  Louisiana  Purchase  territory 
lying  above  36°  30'  north  latitude,  except  the  proposed  state 
of  Missouri.  The  Maine-Missouri-Thomas  compromise  bill  was 
then  sent  to  the  House. 


The  Gatherin     Cloud 


In   return   for   the   admission   of   the   free  state   of   Maine,  445.  Maine 
and  for  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  greater  part  of  the 


Louisiana  Purchase  territory,  the  House  by  a  vote  of  go  to  87    (slave)  ad- 

'    mitted  as 

dropped  the  Tallmadge  amendment,  and  to  keep  the  balance  in  states 
the  Senate,  let  Missouri  enter  the  Union  as  a  slave  state. 
President  Monroe  signed  the  bills  for  the  admission  of  Maine 
and  Missouri  on  the  third  and  sixth  of  March,  1820,  after  being 
assured  by  every  member  of  his  cabinet  except  John  Quincy 
Adams  that  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Louisiana  tract 
north  of  3  6°  30'  applied  to  the  region  only  so  long  as  it  was 
under  territorial  government.1 

The  Missouri  Compromise  was  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  446.  The 
the  antislavery  advocates  of  the  North.  They  surrendered,  to  compromise 
be  sure,  the  constitutional  claim  of  the  Tallmadge  amendment 
that  Congress  had  a  right  to  impose  restrictions  on  a  new  state 
as  a  condition  of  entering  the  Union  ;  and  they  allowed  the  first 
state  formed  out  of  the  great  Missouri  territory  to  come  into 
the  Union  with  a  proslavery  constitution.  But  in  return  they 
secured  the  exclusion  of  the  slaveholder  from  nine  tenths  of  the 
remainder  of  the  vast  region  extending  from  Louisiana  to  the 
Canadian  boundary  and  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Rockies. 
Arkansas  and  Florida  were  the  only  territories  of  the  United 
States  open  to  slavery  after  the  passage  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  bill.  It  is  hard  to  understand  why  the  South,  after  its 
valiant  fight  against  the  Tallmadge  amendment,  and  with  its 
insistence  on  the  need  of  new  territory  for  the  extension  of 
slavery,  should  have  accepted  this  Compromise.  It  saw  its 
mistake  later,  and  secured  the  repeal  of  the  Compromise.  But, 
for  the  present,  harmony  seemed  to  be  established.  The  "  era 

1  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Missouri,  owing  to  her  incorporation  of  a  clause  in  the 
new  constitution,  prohibiting  free  negroes  from  entering  the  state,  was  not  ad 
mitted  until  August,  1821,  while  Maine,  whose  constitution  was  already  framed 
when  she  applied  for  statehood,  was  admitted  in  1820.  It  is  important  to  note 
here,  in  view  of  a  later  controversy,  that  Congress,  by  this  Compromise  Bill,  ex 
cluded  slavery  from  territory  of  the  United  States,  and  that  all  of  the  seventy- 
five  votes  in  the  House  from  the  states  south  of  Pennsylvania  were  cast  in  favor 
of  the  bill. 


314 


Slavery  and  the  West 


447.  Signifi 
cance  of  the 
Missouri 
Compromise 


of  good  feeling,"  though  threatened,  was  undisturbed,  and 
Monroe  was  reflected  to  the  presidency  in  the  autumn  follow 
ing  the  Compromise  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  nation. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  was  one  of  the  most  important 
measures  ever  passed  in  our  history.  First  of  all,  it  connected 
the  question  of  slavery  with  westward  expansion,  and  revealed 
to  farsighted  men  like  Adams  and  King  in  the  North,  and 
Jefferson  and  Calhoun  in  the  South,  the  fact  that  the  develop 
ment  of  our  national  domain  was  to  be  a  struggle  between  the 


L*    R     '     T     '      S     H  TERRITOR 

i  mmm^,,      ^JSk.       ^ 


FREE  SOIL 
By  State  Action 
By  Ordinance  of  1787 
By  Missouri  Comprom 
SLAVE  SOIL 

States 1H 

Territories 


Status  of  Slavery  by  the  Missouri  Compromise 

advocates  of  freedom  and  slavery.  Furthermore,  the  South  saw 
for  the  first  time,  in  the  Missouri  debates,  how  determined  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  was  growing  in  the  North,  and  resented  the 
insinuations  of  Rufus  King  and  other  Northern  orators  that  the 
slaveholders  were  seeking  undue  power  in  the  government  or 
fostering  an  undemocratic  civilization.  Then  again,  the  Missouri 
debates  were  an  important  factor  in  that  change  from  the  na 
tional  to  the  sectional  point  of  view,  on  the  part  of  Calhoun 
and  other  Southern  leaders,  which  we  have  already  studied  in 


The  Gathering  Cloud  3 1 5 

connection  with  the  tariff  agitation  (pp.  270-274).  These  men 
saw  how  dangerous  such  powers  as  those  which  the  Tallmadge 
amendment  attributed  to  Congress  would  be  to  slavery,  and 
consequently  they  grew  more  insistent  on  the  doctrine  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  states. 

Finally,  and  perhaps  most  significant  of  all,  the  Missouri  443.  slavery 
debates  emphasized  the  ethical  side  of  the  slavery  question  as  moraHssue 
it  had  not  been  emphasized  before.  The  Northern  orators  could 
not  help  seeing  that  their  Southern  opponents  had  the  stronger 
legal  argument,  but  in  return  they  appealed  to  the  moral 
sense  of  Congress  and  the  country  at  large,  insisting  that  a 
slave  population  was  an  enfeebled  population,  and  that  the  ex 
istence  of  human  bondage  in  our  country  was  an  outrage  to 
the  sublime  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  To 
meet  the  moral  objections  of  the  North  the  Southerners  now 
began  to  defend  as  a  blessing  to  the  negro  the  system  which 
they  had  earlier  been  inclined  to  deplore  as  a  necessary  evil. 
Hard  feeling  began  to  develop  between  the  two  sections.  The 
North  accused  the  South  of  the  sin  of  willfully  maintaining  an 
inhuman  and  barbarous  institution,  and  the  South  charged  the 
North  with  overlooking  all  the  social  and  economic  arguments 
for  slavery,  and  only  encouraging  discontented  negroes  to  rise 
and  massacre  their  masters. 

The   aged  Jefferson  wrote    of   the   Missouri   Compromise :  449.  it 
"  This  momentous  question,  like  a  fire  bell  in  the  night,  awak-  othe^oitticai 
ened  me  and  filled  me  with  horror.    I  considered  it  at  once  as  questions 
the  knell  of  the  Union."    The  echoes  of  this  alarm  bell  rang 
through    North  and   South,  growing  louder  and  louder  each 
decade,  till  they  drowned  all  other  issues  of  the  century  in 
their  clamor,  —  the  Bank,  the  tariff,  public  lands,  the  currency, 
internal  improvements,  foreign  negotiations,  and  domestic  ex 
pansion.  The  slavery  question  invaded  our  pulpits  and  pervaded 
our  literature.     It  seized  on  press  and  platform.    It  disturbed 
our  industries  and  commerce.    And  finally  it  precipitated  the 
mighty  strife  of  the  Civil  War. 


316  Slavery  and  the  West 

THE  ABOLITIONISTS 

450.  The  In  the  year  in  which  Missouri  was  finally  admitted  to  the 
abolitionist    Union,    Benjamin    Lundy,   a    New  Jersey   Quaker,   began  to 
sentiment      publish  in  Ohio  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  a  weekly 

periodical  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  abolition  of  slavery.  To 
Lundy  belongs  the  credit  of  organizing  into  a  strong  united 
movement  the  antislavery  sentiment  in  our  country.  He  was 
the  first  American  to  embrace  the  cause  of  negro  emancipation 
as  a  life  mission,  advocating  the  establishment  of  colonies  of 
liberated  slaves  on  the  island  of  Hayti.  He  traveled  thousands 
of  miles,  often  on  foot,  through  nearly  every  state  of  the  Union, 
addressing  meetings,  appealing  to  churches  and  colleges,  and 
forming  antislavery  societies  wherever  he  went. 

451.  Plans        Previous  to   the  bitter    Missouri    debates    the   slaveholding 
nizationof"  states  were  as  promising  a  field  for  emancipation  activity  as 


the  negroes  ^g  free  North  Antislavery  societies  existed  in  Kentucky, 
Delaware,  Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  Maryland,  and  Virginia 
before  a  single  one  was  formed  in  New  England.  The  plan  to 
get  rid  of  the  curse  of  slavery  by  purchasing  the  negroes  and 
establishing  them  in  a  colony  on  the  African  coast  was  almost 
exclusively  a  Southern  measure.  It  was  first  proposed  by 
Thomas  Jefferson  in  1784.  In  1816  a  society  was  formed  for 
the  colonization  of  free  negroes,  and  a  few  years  later  the  set 
tlement  of  Liberia  ("  free  land  ")  was  actually  established  on 
the  western  coast  of  Africa.  A  nephew  of  George  Washington 
was  the  society's  first  president,  and  he  was  followed  by  Henry 
Clay.  Hundreds  of  influential  slaveholders,  like  Jefferson  and 
Randolph,  were  members  of  the  society.  The  governor  of 
Virginia  even  proposed  to  the  legislature  as  late  as  1820  that 
the  state  devote  a  third  of  its  revenue  to  the  purchase  and 
colonization  of  negroes.  But  the  colonization  scheme  utterly 
failed.  In  spite  of  an  appropriation  of  $100,000  by  Congress, 
the  new  society  was  able  to  carry  only  about  a  thousand  negroes 
to  the  distant  African  coast  during  the  decade  1820-1830, 


The  Gathering  Cloud  317 

and  most  of  those  died  soon  after  landing,  from  the  ravages  of 
malarial  fever  and  the  attacks  of  savage  neighboring  tribes.1 

The  rapid  extension  of  cotton  cultivation  after  the  second  452.  change 
war  with  England,  the  ill  success  of  the  colonizing  movement,  tude  of  the" 


and  the  bitterness  aroused  by  the  Missouri  debates  produced 

a  great  change  in  the  attitude  of  the  South  towards  slavery,  emancipa- 

After  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  passed,  free  discussion  of  ^20' 

the  evils  of  slavery  began  to  die  out  in  the  South,  being  branded 

by  the  political  and  social  leaders  as  treason  to  the  interests  of 

their  section  of  the  country.   On  the  other  hand,  the  little  group 

of  Northern  abolitionists  began  to  redouble  their  efforts  to  rid 

the  country  of  the  disgrace  and  curse  of  human  bondage. 

On  a  visit  to  Boston  in  1828,  Benjamin  Lundy  met  a  young  453. 
man  of  twenty-two,  named  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  who  was 


earning  a  bare  living  by  doing  compositor's  work  in  various  The  Liberator, 

1831 

printing  offices.  Young  Garrison  was  immediately  won  to  the 
cause  of  abolition,  and  a  year  later  joined  Lundy  at  Baltimore 
in  the  editorship  of  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation. 
Garrison  announced  in  his  first  article  that  all  slaves  were 
"  entitled  to  immediate  and  complete  emancipation."  This 
position  was  too  radical  for  Lundy,  who,  with  some  regard  for 
the  property  of  the  slaveholders,  advocated  a  gradual  eman 
cipation.  So  the  partnership  was  promptly  dissolved,  and 
Garrison  set  up  his  own  press  in  Boston,  from  which  on 
New  Year's  Day,  1831,  he  issued  the  first  number  of  The 
Liberator.  He  had  neither  capital  nor  influence.  His  office  was 
"  an  obscure  hole,"  which  the  police  had  difficulty  in  finding. 
He  had  but  one  man  and  a  negro  boy  to  help  him  in  compo 
sition  and  presswork.  He  himself  was  editor,  typesetter,  proof 
reader,  printer,  and  distributor  of  The  Liberator,  and  the  very 
paper  on  which  the  first  number  was  printed  was  bought  on 
credit. 

1  Between  1820  and  1860  the  Society  spent  $1,806,000  and  colonized  but 
10,500  negroes  —  fewer  than  the  increase  by  births  in  one  month.  Obviously, 
trying  to  remove  the  negroes  from  the  South  by  colonization  was  like  trying  to 
bail  out  the  sea  with  a  dipper. 


318 


Slavery  and  the  West 


454.  Garri 
son's  anti- 
slavery 
manifesto 


455.  Nat 
Turner's  in 
surrection, 
1831 


In  a  small  chamber,  friendless  and  unseen, 

Toiled  o'er  his  types  one  poor,  unlearned  young  man. 

The  place  was  dark,  unfurnitured,  and  mean, 
Yet  there  the  freedom  of  a  race  began.1 

Garrison  was  of  the  stern,  unyielding,  undaunted  race  of  the 
ancient  Hebrew  prophets.  He  saw,  and  wished  to  see,  only  one 
truth,  namely,  that  slavery  was  sin.  "  On  this  subject,"  he 
wrote  in  his  first  announcement  in  The  Liberator,  "  I  do  not 
wish  to  think,  or  speak,  or  write  with  moderation.  No  !  no  !  Tell 
a  man  whose  house  is  on  fire  to  give  a  moderate  alarm,  .  .  .  tell 
the  mother  to  gradually  extricate  the  babe  from  the  fire  into 


Reduced  Facsimile  of  the  Heading  of  The  Liberator 

which  it  has  fallen  —  but  urge  me  not  to  use  moderation  in  a 
cause  like  the  present.  ...  I  will  be  as  harsh  as  truth  and  as 
uncompromising  as  justice.  ...  I  am  in  earnest  —  I  will  not 
equivocate  —  I  will  not  excuse  —  I  will  not  retreat  a  single 
inch  —  AND  I  WILL  BE  HEARD  !  The  apathy  of  the  people  is 
enough  to  make  every  statue  leap  from  its  pedestal,  and  to 
hasten  the  resurrection  of  the  dead." 

A  horrible  massacre,  by  negroes,  of  over  sixty  white  people 
(mostly  women  and  children)  occurred  in  Southampton  County, 
Virginia,  in  the  late  summer  of  the  same  year  that  The  Liber 
ator  was  started.  Nat  Turner,  the  slave  who  led  the  insur 
rection,  was  a  fanatical  lay  preacher  who  could  read  and  write. 


1  James  Russell  Lowell,  «  To  William  Lloyd  Garrison.' 


The  Gathering  Cloud  319 

The  Southerners  laid  the  dreadful  deed  to  the  influence  of  The 
Liberator  and  other  abolitionist  literature  that  was  being  sent 
into  the  slave  states.  Their  rage  against  Northern  abolitionists, 
especially  Garrison,  knew  no  bounds.  They  demanded  that  the 
legislatures  of  the  free  states  should  silence  all  antislavery 
agitation  by  a  strict  censorship  of  the  press  and  of  the  public 
platform.  They  increased  the  severity  of  their  own  laws  in 
restraint  of  negroes,  both  slave  and  free.  In  Delaware  the 
assembling  of  more  than  six  negroes  was  forbidden.  In  Virginia 
thirty-nine  lashes  were  given  a  slave  who  was  found  with  a  gun 
in  his  possession.  A  law  of  Tennessee  provided  that  no  slave 
"  dying  under  moderate  correction  "  (i.e.  the  slave  driver's  lash) 
could  be  held  by  the  courts  to  have  been  "murdered."  A 
wave  of  apprehension  ran  through  the  South  lest  the  South 
ampton  horror  should  be  repeated. 

The  majority  of  the  business  and  professional  men  of  the  456.  North- 
North  were  scarcely  less  hostile  to  the  abolitionists  of  the  tcrthe^bo-7 
Garrison  type  than  were  the  slaveholders  themselves.  In  fact,  litionists 
Garrison  declared  that  he  found  "  contempt  more  bitter,  opposi 
tion  more  active,  detraction  more  relentless,  prejudice  more  stub 
born,"  in  New  England  than  in  the  South.  It  was  not  in 
Charleston  or  Richmond,  but  in  Boston  that  he  was  dragged 
through  the  streets,  with  a  rope  around  his  neck,  by  a  "  mob  of 
respectable  citizens,"  to  be  tarred  and  feathered  on  the  Com 
mon,  and  was  with  difficulty  rescued  by  the  police  and  lodged 
in  the  city  jail  for  his  safety.  As  a  rebuke  to  the  abolitionists 
the  free  negroes  in  many  cities  of  the  North  were  treated  with 
contemptuous  discrimination ;  they  were  ejected  from  cars  and 
coaches,  assigned'  to  corners  in  the  churches,  and  excluded  from 
the  schools.  Daniel  Webster  assured  an  anxious  Southern  cor 
respondent  in  1833  that  "the  North  entertained  no  hostile 
designs  toward  slavery  " ;  and  Charles  Sumner  (who  twenty-five 
years  later  nearly  paid  with  his  life  for  his  advocacy  of  abolition) 
declared  that  "  an  omnibus  load  of  Boston  abolitionists  had 
done  more  to  harm  the  antislavery  cause  than  all  its  enemies." 


320 


Slavery  and  the  West 


457.  Con 
trast  between 
antislavery 
men  and  abo 
litionists 


458.  The 
South  drives 
moderate 
Northerners 
into  the  abo 
litionists' 
ranks 


We  must  distinguish  carefully  between  the  antislavery  men, 
like  Webster  and  Sumner,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Garrison 
abolitionists  on  the  other.  The  former  recognized  that  the  slavery 
question  was  exceedingly  complicated,  involving  considerations 
of  property,  of  social  rank,  of  the  rights  of  the  states,  and  of  the 
established  industrial  system  of  the  South,  as  well  as  the  moral 
issue.  But  the  Garrison  abolitionists  saw  only  that  slavery  was 
sin,  the  violation  of  the  Christian  principle  of  the  brotherhood 
of  man.  When  therefore  the  moderate  emancipators  said  that 
slavery  was  "  the  calamity  of  the  South  and  not  its  crime,"  the 
abolitionist  replied  that  it  was  a  calamity  because  it  was  a  crime. 
When  the  moderates  suggested  that  the  nation  should  assume 
the  burden  of  emancipation  by  appropriating  to  it  the  revenues 
from  the  sale  of  the  public  lands,  the  abolitionists  declared  for 
immediate,  unconditional,  and  uncompensated  emancipation. 
The  antislavery  men  were  willing  to  proceed  according  to  the 
methods  recognized  by  the  Constitution ;  that  is,  to  confine  their 
demands  to  emancipation  in  the  District  of  Columbia  (which  was 
national  territory),  or  to  petition  for  an  amendment  to  the  Consti 
tution  giving  Congress  the  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  states. 
But  Garrison  denounced  the  Constitution  as  "  a  covenant  with 
death  and  an  agreement  with  hell,"  and  burned  a  copy  of  it 
publicly  to  show  his  horror  of  its  recognition  of  slavery.  He 
proclaimed  as  his  motto,  "  No  union  with  slaveholders ! "  and 
forbade  his  followers  to  vote  or  hold  office  or  even  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  a  Constitution  which  supported  slavery.1 

As  the  abolitionists  were  very  active  in  organizing  societies 
in  every  town  and  flooding  the  South  with  literature,  while  the 
more  moderate  antislavery  men  refrained  from  speaking  their 
mind  for  the  sake  of  preserving  as  much  harmony  as  possible 
between  the  two  sections  of  the  country,  it  was  only  natural  < 

1  Garrison's  refusal  to  take  any  part  in  politics,  joined  with  other  doctrines 
which  were  extreme  for  his  day,  such  as  the  recognition  of  woman's  rights,  a  free 
and  rational  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  and  the  condemnation  of  all  resist 
ance  by  force,  prevented  his  becoming  the  generally  recognized  leader  of  the 
antislavery  or  even  the  abolitionist  movement.  He  was  always  the  leader  of  an 
extremist  sect. 


The  Gathering  Cloud  321 

that  the  South  should  believe  the  extreme  abolitionist  senti 
ment  to  be  much  more  widespread  in  the  North  than  it  really 
was.  In  fact,  the  abolitionists  might  have  long  remained  a  small 
sect  of  extremists,  had  not  the  Southerners  themselves  driven 
hundreds  into  their  ranks  by  trying  to  muzzle  the  liberty  of 
petition  and  debate  in  Congress,  thus  identifying  the  cause  of 
slavery  with  the  denial  of  free  speech. 

The  introduction  of  abolitionism   into  Congress  marks  an  459.  The 
important   epoch   in    the  slavery  question.    During  the  early  °C 


years  of  Garrison's  activity  (1829-1833)  Congress  was  busy  enters  con- 
with  the  agitation  over  the  "  Tariff  of  Abominations,"  the  re 
newal  of  the  Bank  charter,  the  great  Webster-Hayne  debates 
on  sectionalism,  and  the  crisis  of  nullification.  The  slavery 
issue  was  kept  in  the  political  background,  being  confined  to 
the  lecture  hall  and  the  abolitionist  journals.  But  from  the 
session  of  1834-1835  on,  numerous  petitions  for  the  restriction 
or  abolition  of  slavery  were  presented  in  both  Houses  of  Con 
gress.1  The  attitude  of  the  Southern  members  toward  such 
petitions  was  shown  when  Wise  of  Virginia  declared  in  the 
House  (February,  1835)  :  "  Sir,  slavery  is  interwoven  with  our 
very  political  existence  and  guaranteed  by  our  Constitution. 
You  cannot  attack  the  institution  of  slavery  without  attacking 
the  institutions  of  our  country."  And  Calhoun  in  the  Senate 
called  a  mild  petition  from  the  Pennsylvania  Friends  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  (1836)  "  a  foul 
slander  on  nearly  one  half  the  states  of  the  Union." 

The  first  amendment  to  the  Constitution  forbids  Congress  to  460.  John 
make  any  law  abridging  "  the  right  of  the  people  to  petition  the 


government  for  redress  of  grievances."    Up  to  the  days  of  the  "gag-resolu 

tions  »  in  the 
abolitionist  excitement  Congress  had  respected  this  amendment  House,  1836- 

and  received  all  petitions.    But  in  May,  1836,  the  enemies  of  x  44 
abolition,  North  and  South,  united  in  the  following  resolution 

1  The  American  Antislavery  Society  had  been  organized  by  the  abolitionists 
at  Philadelphia  in  1833,  and  had  added  200  branch  societies  by  1835.  Before  this 
epoch  only  the  Friends  had  taken  an  interest  in  petitioning  Congress  for  the 
destruction  of  slavery. 


322 


Slavery  and  the  West 


461.  Calhoun 
formulates 
the  slave 
holders'  de 
mands  in  the 
Senate,  1836 


462.  Attempt 
to  exclude 
abolitionist 
matter  from 
the  mails, 
1835-1836 


in  the  House  :  "  That  all  petitions  .  .  .  relating  in  any  way  to  the 
subject  of  slavery  or  the  abolition  of  slavery,  shall,  without  being 
either  printed  or  referred  [to  a  committee],  be  laid  upon  the 
table,  and  that  no  further  action  shall  be  held  thereon."  This 
"  gag  resolution,"  as  it  was  called  by  reason  of  its  intent  to  throttle 
free  discussion,  furthered  the  abolitionist  cause  more  than  all 
the  published  numbers  of  The  Liberator.  John  Quincy  Adams,  no 
friend  of  abolition  before,1  answered,  when  his  name  was  called 
on  the  vote,  "  I  hold  the  resolution  to  be  a  direct  violation  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  of  the  rules  of  this  House, 
and  of  the  rights  of  my  constituents."  The  gag  resolution 
passed,  however,  by  a  vote  of  1 1 7  to  68,  and,  in  spite  of  Adams's 
valiant  opposition,  was  renewed  in  succeeding  sessions,  and  in 
1840  was  made  a  "  standing  "  or  permanent  rule  of  the  House.2 

Meanwhile  the  Senate,  although  it  did  not  pass  any  similar 
resolution,  rejected  the  abolitionist  petitions  so  curtly  that  the 
effect  on  the  public  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  conduct  of  the 
House.  In  the  course  of  the  debates  the  Southern  members, 
led  by  Calhoun,  formulated  the  full  demands  of  the  slave  in 
terests,  namely,  that  the  government  should  protect  slavery  in 
the  Southern  states,  that  the  people  of  the  North  should  cease 
to  attack  or  even  discuss  the  institution,  and  that  there  should 
be  no  agitation  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  or  the  territory  of  Florida.3 

Furthermore,  the  executive  department  of  the  government  had 
been  drawn  into  the  abolitionist  struggle.  The  people  of  the 
South  resented  the  distribution  of  abolitionist  literature  through 
their  mails.  One  night  in  the  summer  of  1835  a  number  of 

1  In  1807  he  had  voted  in  the  Senate  against  the  law  to  prohibit  the  slave 
trade,  and  in  1814,  as  peace  commissioner  at  Ghent,  he  had  insisted  that  the 
British  pay  for  the  slaves  they  had  stolen  in  the  United  States. 

2  It  was  not  till  December,  1844,  that  Adams,  after  an  eight  years'  fight,  during 
which  an  attempt  was  made  to  censure  him  publicly,  was  able  to  get  the  gag 
resolution  repealed  by  a  vote  of  108  to  80. 

3  Arkansas,  the  only  territory  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  tract  left  open  to 
slavery  after  the  Missouri  Compromise,  was  admitted  as  a  slave  state  in  1836. 
This  left  Florida  the  only  territory  in  which  slavery  legally  existed. 


The  Gathering  Cloud  323 

leading  citizens  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  broke  into  the 
post  office,  seized  a  mail  sack  full  of  abolitionist  documents,  and 
publicly  burned  them.  Appeal  was  made  to  the  Postmaster- 
General,  Amos  Kendall,  himself  a  slaveholder,  to  refuse  the 
abolitionists  the  use  of  the  United  States  mails.  Kendall  re 
plied  that  he  had  no  authority  to  exclude  abolitionist  matter 
from  the  mails,  but  added  that  he  would  force  neither  the 
Northern  postmasters  to  forward  such  matter  nor  the  Southern 
postmasters  to  deliver  it.  In  other  words,  he  signified  his  will 
ingness  to  have  his  subordinates  exclude  the  documents  which 
he  himself  had  no  authority  to  exclude.  Kendall  probably  was 
encouraged  to  take  this  cowardly  and  inconsistent  position  by 
his  knowledge  that  President  Jackson  sympathized  with  the 
South  in  this  matter,  and  was  already  preparing  to  insert  in  his 
message  of  1835  to  Congress  a  recommendation  to  pass  a  law 
forbidding  "  under  severe  penalties  the  circulation  in  the  Southern 
states,  through  the  mails,  of  incendiary  publications  intended  to 
instigate  the  slaves  to  insurrection."  Congress,  however,  refused 
to  interfere,  in  the  interests  of  slavery,  with  the  regular  business 
of  the  Post-Office  Department  of  the  United  States.  By  a  law 
of  July  2,  1836,  it  punished  with  dismissal,  fine,  and  imprison 
ment  any  postmaster  who  intentionally  detained  mail  matter 
from  reaching  the  person  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 

These  events  of  the  years  1835-1837  in  Congress  woke  the  463.  impor- 
people  of  the  land  to  realization  of  the  tremendous  problem  J^s  18  s- 


they  had  on  their  hands.1    The  antislavery  men  of  the  North  l837  for  the 

slavery 
drew  closer  to  the  abolitionist  position  when  they  saw  how  little  question 

chance  there  was  of  friendly  cooperation  with  the  South  for 
the  removal  of  slavery.  Deeds  of  mob  violence  still  further 
inflamed  the  antislavery  spirit.  In  1836  the  office  of  The 

1  Our  foremost  constitutional  historian,  Professor  Burgess,  goes  so  far  as  to 
write  :  "  It  would  not  be  extravagant  to  say  that  the  whole  course  of  the  internal 
history  of  the  United  States  from  1836  to  1861  was  more  largely  determined  by 
the  struggle  in  Congress  over  the  Abolition  petitions  and  the  use  of  the  mails 
for  the  distribution  of  the  Abolition  literature  than  by  anything  else."  —  Middle 
Period,  p.  274. 


324  Slavery  and  the  West 

Philanthropist,  an  abolitionist  paper  published  in  Cincinnati 
by  James  G.  Birney,  a  former  Alabama  planter  who  had  come 
North  and  been  converted  to  the  abolitionist  cause,  was  sacked 
by  a  mob,  and  Birney  was  obliged  to  flee  for  his  life.  The  next 
year  Elijah  Lovejoy,  after  his  printing  press  had  been  wrecked 
three  times,  was  deliberately  shot  by  a  mob  in  Alton,  Illinois, 
for  insisting  on  publishing  an  abolitionist  paper. 

464.  The  Although    Garrison    and    his    New   England   followers   con- 

demned  any  participation  in  politics  under  a  Constitution  which 


party,  1837-    recognized  slavery,  the  more  practical  abolitionists  of  the  Middle 

1838 

and  Western  border  states,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois,  formed  a  political  party.  In  1838  they  elected  Joshua 
R.  Giddings  to  Congress,  and  in  the  presidential  campaign  of 
1840  they  cast  over  7000  votes  for  James  G.  Birney.1  We  shall 
see  in  the  next  chapter  what  a  great  influence  this  Liberty  party 
exercised  in  the  decade  1840-1850.  In  spite  of  Garrison's  op 
position  to  the  party,  it  was  nevertheless  the  natural  and  logical 
outcome  of  the  abolitionist  movement,  and  the  true  foundation 
of  the  new  Republican  party  which  twenty  years  later  triumphed 
in  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  —  the  man  who  gave  negro 
slavery  its  death  blow. 

465.  Re-  The  failure  of  the  South  to  get  rid  of  slavery  in  the  early 

of  theVouth-  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  must  be  set  down  to  the 
aristocrat8'  domination  of  a  class  of  rich,  aristocratic  planters,  who  found 

for  the  con-     slavery  both  economically  profitable  and  the  basis  of  a  social 

tinuation  of 

slavery          order  in  which  they  enjoyed  a  comfortable  and  commanding 

position.  Their  slaves  excluded  the  competition  of  free  labor 
and  kept  the  poorer  whites  from  attaining  the  industrial  devel 
opment  which  would  have  given  them  a  share  in  the  commercial 
wealth  and  the  political  power  of  the  South.  Calhoun,  in  a  con 
versation  with  Horace  Binney,  a  Northern  friend,  in  1834, 

1  The  socialists  of  to-day  offer  an  analogy  to  the  abolitionists  of  the  middle  of 
the  century,  some  of  them  wishing  to  keep  their  ideal  "  pure  "  by  refraining  from 
participation  in  a  government  corrupted  by  capitalism,  others  seeing  the  only 
hope  of  success  in  entering  the  political  arena  and  struggling  with  the  other 
parties  there. 


The  Gathering  Cloud  325 

boasted  of  the  superiority  of  slave  labor  over  free  labor  in  a 
democracy.  Of  the  Northern  laborers  he  said  :  "  The  poor  and 
uneducated  are  increasing.  There  is  no  power  in  representative 
government  to  suppress  them.  Their  numbers  and  disorderly 
tempers  will  make  them  in  the  end  the  enemies  of  the  men  of 
property.  They  have  the  right  to  vote,  and  will  finally  control 
your  elections,  invade  your  houses,  and  drive  you  out  of  doors. 
.  .  .  They  will  increase  till  they  overturn  your  institutions. 
Slavery  cuts  off  this  evil  at  its  roots.  .  .  .  There  cannot  be  a 
durable  republic  without  slavery."  3 

The  moral  argument  of  the  abolitionists  had  less  and  less  466.  The 

moral  argu- 
weight  as  this  caste  system  hardened.       By  what  moral  sua-  mentpower- 

sion,"  asked  an  apologist  for  slavery  in  the  South,  "do  you  Jaceofeco- 
imagine  you  can  prevail  on  us  to  give  up  a  thousand  millions  nomic  inter- 
of  dollars  in  the  value  of  our  slaves  and  a  thousand  millions 
more  in  the  depreciation  of  our  lands  ?  "  Had  the  states  of  the 
South  been  willing  to  cooperate  with  the  national  government, 
there  is  little  doubt  that  a  plan  of  gradual  emancipation  could 
have  been  found.  Other  nations,  even  the  states  of  Spanish 
America,  had  got  rid  of  slavery  without  revolution  or  blood 
shed,  and  the  example  of  England,  which  purchased  for  £20,- 
000,000  and  set  free  the  slaves  in  her  West  Indian  colonies  in 
1833,  was  before  the  eyes  of  the  South  and  of  the  world.  But 
the  humane  and  moderate  sentiment  surrendered  completely  in 
our  country  to  the  slaveholders'  financial  interests.  Under  the 
provocation  of  the  abolitionists'  attacks  the  legislatures  of  the 
Southern  states,  instead  of  devising  plans  of  emancipation,  passed 
harsher  and  harsher  laws  for  the  coercion  of  the  negroes,  muzzled 
all  expression  of  opinion,  forbade  any  assembling  of  the  blacks 
for  instruction,  and  made  death  the  penalty  for  exciting  or  sup 
porting  any  conspiracy  for  freedom. 

1  This  gloomy  prediction  of  Calhoun's  was  reported  in  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Binney  to  Dr.  Francis  Lieber,  January  5,  1861.  See  C.  C.  Binney,  The  Life  of 
Horace  Binney,  p.  313. 


326  Slavery  and  the  West 

REFERENCES 

Slavery  in  the  Colonies:  J.  B.  MACMASTER,  History  of  the  People  of 
the  United  States,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  514-528;  Vol.  IV,  pp.  556-569; 
E.  B.  GREENE,  Provincial  America  (American  Nation  Series),  chap, 
xiv;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  I,  Nos. 
86-87;  Vo1-  H,  Nos-  42>  102-108;  J.  A.  DOYLE,  English  Colonies  in 
America,  Vol.  V,  chap,  vi ;  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  The  Suppression  of  the 
African  Slave  Trade,  chaps,  i-iii ;  W.  B.  WEEDEN,  Economic  and  Social 
History  of  New  England,  Vol.  II,  chap,  xii ;  MARY  S.  LOCKE,  Anti- 
slavery  in  America,  1619-1808  (Radcliffe  College  Monographs,  No.  n). 

The  Missouri  Compromise  :  H.  VON  HOLST,  Constitutional  History  of 
the  United  States,  Vol.  I,  chap,  ix ;  F.  J.  TURNER,  Rise  of  the  Arew  West 
(Am.  Nation),  chap,  x;  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS,  Memoirs,  Vols.  IV,  V; 
J.  A.  WOODBURN,  Historical  Significance  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  in 
American  History  Association  Report,  1893,  pp.  249-298  ;  J.  W.  BURGESS, 
The  Middle  Period,  chap,  iv ;  MACMASTER,  Vol.  IV,  chap,  xxxix ;  CARL 
SCHURZ,  Henry  Clay,  Vol.  I,  chap.  viii. 

The  Abolitionists:  HART,  Contemporaries,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  174-181, 
186;  W.  P.  and  F.  J.  GARRISON,  Life  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison;  MAC- 
MASTER,  Vol.  VI,  chap.  Ixi ;  HiGGiNSON  and  MACDONALD,  History  of 
the  United  States,  chap,  xix ;  J.  G.  WHITTIER,  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly, 
Vol.  XXXIII,  pp.  166-172;  WILLIAM  MACDONALD,  Select  Documents 
of  United  States  History,  17 76-1861,  Nos.  63-69  ;  T.  C.  SMITH,  The  Liberty 
and  Free-Soil  Parties  in  the  Northwest,  chaps,  ii,  iii ;  BURGESS,  chap,  xi ; 
J.  F.  RHODES,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  53-75;  BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  The  Story  of  the  Negro, 
chap,  xiv  (negro  abolitionists). 

TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  Antislavery  Sentiment  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  :  HENRY  WILSON, 
The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power,  Vol.  I,  pp.  1-30  ;  THOMAS  JEFFER 
SON,  Notes  on  Virginia;  WILLIAM  RIRNEY,  James  G.  Birney,  His  Life 
and  Times,  Appendix  C  ;  JOHN  WOOLMAN,  Considerations  on  the  Keep 
ing  of  ATegroes ;  HART,    Contemporaries,  Vol.  II,  Nos.   102,  103,  106; 
GAILLARD  HUNT,  Life  of  James  Madison,  pp.  70-76. 

2.  Slavery  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  :  WILSON,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  39-56 ;  DuBois,  pp.   53-69 ;  JONATHAN   ELLIOT,  Debates  on  the 
Adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  Vol.  V ;  J.  R.  BRACKETT,  The 
Status  of  Slavery,  I'j'j^-jjSg  (in  J.  F.  Jameson's  Essays  in  Constitutional 
History],  pp.  263-311  ;  H.  V.  AMES,  Slavery  and  the  Constitution. 


The  Gathering  Cloud  327 

3.  The  "  Gag  "  Resolutions  :   ADAMS,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  434-481;   Vol. 
IX,  pp.  267-286;  HART,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  184 ;  C.  H.  PECK,  The  Jacks  onian 
Epoch,  pp.  273-279,  373-392;  J.  T.  MORSE,  JR.,  John  Quincy  Adams, 
pp.  243-262  ;    JosiAH   QuiNCY,   Memoir  of  John    Quincy   Adams,    pp. 
251-262  ;  HART,  Slavery  and  Abolition  (Am.  Nation),  pp.  256-275. 

4.  Abolitionist  Literature  in  the  United  States  Mail :  HART,  Vol.  Ill, 
No.  180;  Slavery  and  Abolition,  pp.  286-288;  J.  D.  RICHARDSON,  Mes 
sages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  175  ff. ;  AMOS  KENDALL, 
Autobiography,  pp.  645  ff. 

5.  James  G.  Birney :  WILLIAM  BIRNEY,  James  G.  Birney,  His  Life 
and  Times;  SAMUEL).  MAY,  Recollections  of  the  Anti slavery  Conflict,  pp. 
203-211 ;  HART,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  177  ;  WILSON,  Vol.  I  (use  index). 


CHAPTER  XII 

TEXAS 

WESTWARD   EXPANSION 

One  of  the  chief  traits  of  the  American  people  has  been  their 
restless  activity.  The  settlers  who  came  to  our  shores  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  came  in  search  of  an 
ampler  life  than  they  found  in  thev  Old  World.  They  wanted 
elbow  room.  They  demanded  freedom — freedom  from  religious 
persecution,  social  oppression,  and  commercial  restriction.  For 
the  sake  of  living  untrammeled  lives  and  working  out  their  own 
destinies,  they  accepted  the  privations  and  hardships  of  the  New 
World.  Their  descendants,  increased  by  new  thousands  of  ad 
venturous  immigrants,  tended  constantly  westward,  making 
the  extension  of  our  frontier  to  the  Pacific  probably  the  most 
important  influence  in  American  history. 

467.  The         The  Westward  movement  is  characterized  by  successive  waves 

pioneers  to      r  .  ™,        ~ 

the  west,     01  migration.     I  he  first  great  wave,  fascinatingly  described  in 

1763-1783  ex-President  Roosevelt's  "  Winning  of  the  West,"  followed  the  ex 
pulsion  of  the  French  from  North  America  in  1 763.  Through  the 
passes  of  the  Alleghenies,  "  the  arteries  of  the  West,"  a  stream  of 
pioneers  led  by  Boone,  Sevier,  Robertson,  Harrod,  and  our  other 
early  "  empire  builders,"  l  poured  into  the  forest  lands  of  the 
Ohio,  the  Tennessee,  and  the  Cumberland  valleys  ;  while  George 
Rogers  Clark,  during  the  American  Revolution,  won  for  Virginia 
and  the  Union  the  magnificent  territory  between  the  Ohio  and 
the  Great  Lakes,  extending  westward  to  the  Mississippi. 

1 "  A  roughened  race,  embrowned  in  the  sun,  loving  the  rude  woods  and  the 
crack  of  the  rifle,  delicate  in  nothing  but  the  touch  of  the  trigger,  leaving  cities 
in  their  track  as  if  by  accident  rather  than  by  design.  .  .  .  Settled  life  and  wild  life 
side  by  side;  civilization  frayed  at  the  edges;  Europe  frontiered ! "  Woodrow 
Wilson,  in  The  Forum,  Vol.  XIX,  p.  544. 

328 


Texas  329 

A  second  wave  of  Westward  migration  followed  the  War  of  468.  succes- 
1812,  filling  the  Indiana  and  Illinois  territories  on  the  north  and  westward8  ° 
the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  territories  to  the  south,  and  bring-  migration 
ing  five  new  Western  states  (Indiana,  Mississippi,  Illinois,  Ala 
bama,  Missouri)  into  the  Union  in  as  many  years  (1816-1821). 
The    third   and  most  wonderful  era  of  Westward  expansion 
(1835-1848)  carried  our  boundary  across  the  Rockies  and  the 
Sierras  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.    It  is  this  third  period  which  we 
are  to  study  in  the  present  chapter.    The  chapter  is  entitled 
"  Texas,"  because  the  annexation  of  that  great  commonwealth 


An  Emigrant  Train  on  the  Way  to  the  West 

to  the  Union,  and  the  disposition  of  the  land  that  was  acquired 
in  the  war  with  Mexico  which  followed  the  annexation,  deter 
mined  the  whole  policy  of  our  government  toward  the  West 
during  the  decade  1840-1850. 

.  The  path,  of  Westward  expansion  was  never  smooth.    Besides  469.  Eastern 
the  distresses  and  dangers  of  the  wilderness,  the  pioneer  com-  JJ^deveiop*? 
munities  had  to  contend  with  opposition  from  the  older  states.  men*  of  tne 
Up  to  the  time  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  this  opposition 
arose  from  the  apprehension  of  the  original  states   that  the        f|,,, 
burden  of  the  defense  and  the  development  of  the  new  commu 
nities  would  fall  upon  their  shoulders,  and  from  the  jealousy  of 
the  political  power  which  the  new  communities  would  wrest 
from  them.    Gouverneur  Morris  of  Pennsylvania,  at  the  time  of 


330  Slavery  and  the  West 

the  formation  of  the  Constitution,  wanted  some  provision  in 
serted  to  prevent  the  future  commonwealths  created  out  of  the 
trans- Allegheny  country  from  enjoying  equal  power  in  Congress 
with  the  thirteen  original  states.  And  when  the  bill  to  admit 
Louisiana  to  the  Union  was  proposed  in  1 8 1 1 ,  Josiah  Quincy 
of  Massachusetts  declared  on  the  floor  of  Congress :  "  If  this 
bill  passes,  it  is  my  deliberate  opinion  that  it  is  virtually  a  dis 
solution  of  the  Union.  .  .  .  Do  you  suppose  the  people  of  the 
Northern  and  Atlantic  states  will,  or  ought  to,  look  on  with 
patience  and  see  representatives  and  senators  from  the  Red 
River  and  the  Missouri  pouring  themselves  on  this  floor,  man 
aging  the  concerns  of  a  seaboard  1500  miles,  £t  least,  from 
their  residence  ? " 

470.  slavery       This  narrow  and  selfish  opposition  of  the  East  to  the  expan 

sion  of  the  West  was  broken  down  by  the  democratic  revolution 
of  the  third  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  which  put  Andrew 
Jackson  into  the  presidential  chair.  But  a  still  more  serious 
complication  arose  with  the  debates  over  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise  and  the  abolitionist  agitation.  Then  the  question  of  the 
growth  of  the  West  became  connected  with  the  question  of  the 
extension  of  slavery.  After  the  bitter  struggle  of  the  years 
1835-1837  in  Congress  over  the  antislavery  petitions  and  the 
use  of  the  United  States  mails  for  antislavery  propaganda,  no 
movement  for  the  acquisition  of  new  territory  or  the  admission 
of  new  states  could  arise  without  immediately  starting  the  strife 
between  the  friends  and  the  foes  of  slavery.  Senator  Benton  of 
Missouri  likened  the  slavery  question  to  the  plague  of  frogs 
sent  on  the  Egyptians.  "We  can  see  nothing,  touch  nothing, 
have  no  measures  proposed,"  he  said,  "  without  having  this 
pestilence  thrust  before  us." 

471.  The  It  would  be  impossible  to  overestimate  the  importance  of 
crisis  of  the        .  .  .  ,TT  .  ..     .  T 
siavery  ques-  this  connection  between  Westward  expansion  and  slavery.    In 

wit-lowest-      ^act'  fr  was  'm  connection  with  the  Westward  movement  that  the 

ward  expan-     struggle  over  slavery  grew  fiercer  and  fiercer  until  it  ended  in 

secession  and  civil  war.    In  other  words,  the  slavery  issue  came 


Texas  331 

to  a  crisis  not  as  a  struggle  between  North  and  South,  but  as  a 
struggle  of  North  and  South  for  the  West.  If  there  had  been  no 
trans-Mississippi  territory  to  spread  into,  slavery  might  have 
continued  in  the  Southern  states  as  an  accepted  institution,  pro 
tected  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  established 
by  long  usage,  in  spite  of  the  agitation  of  a  relatively  small 
group  of  abolitionists  in  the  North.  Or  if  that  group  had  had 
their  way,  the  North  and  the  South  might  have  separated  peace 
ably  into  a  free  and  a  slave  republic.  -But  the  sentiment  of  ex 
pansion,  so  deeply  implanted  in  the  breasts  of  Northerners  and 
Southerners  alike,  and  the  glory  of  carrying  the  American  flag 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  impelled  our  fathers  to  take  possession  of 
the  Western  land  and  trust  to  future  compromises  to  settle  the 
question  of  freedom  or  slavery  within  its  borders.  The  history 
of  those  compromises  we  shall  trace  in  a  later  chapter.  First 
we  must  see  how  the  Western  land  was  won. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  treaty  of  1819  with  Spain  472.  claims 
fixed  our  western  boundary  as  far  north  as  the  forty-second  Jggion 
parallel.  We  had  just  concluded  (1818)  a  treaty  with  Great  **** 
Britain  by  which  we  agreed  to  share  with  that  power  for 
ten  years  the  great  Oregon  region  lying  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  between  42°  and  54°  40'  north  latitude.  The  agree 
ment  was  fair,  for  both  countries  had  claims  on  Oregon,  based 
upon  exploration  and  settlement.  For  the  Americans,  a  Boston 
sea  captain  named  Grey  had  sailed  into  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  River  in  1792  ;  the  famous  Lewis  and  Clark  expedi 
tion  had  traversed  the  region  to  the  Pacific  in  1804-1806;  and 
John  Jacob  Astor  had  established  the  fur  post  of  Astoria  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  in  1811.  For  the  English,  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  had  established  several  trading  posts 
and  ports  north  of  the  Columbia  River.  In  1828,  on  the 
expiration  of  the  ten  years'  agreement,  some  of  our  Western 
patriots,  led  by  Senator  Thomas  H.  Benton,  who  realized  the 
importance  of  our  extension  to  the  Pacific,  urged  a  settlement 
of  the  Oregon  question  which  should  give  the  United  States  full 


332  Slavery  and  the  West 

title  to  the  land  at  least  as  far  north  as  the  forty-ninth  parallel  (our 
northern  boundary  east  of  the  Rockies).  But  public  opinion  was 
not  yet  sufficiently  aroused  to  the  value  of  the  region  across  the 
Rockies.  Oregon  seemed  too  far  away  to  bother  over  in  the  excit 
ing  days  of  the  Jackson  campaign  for  the  presidency ;  and  the 
agreement  of  1818  was  renewed  for  an  indefinite  period  in  1829. 
473.  Marcus  During  the  Jacksonian  epoch  several  American  travelers  and 
laborsfor *  explorers  made  the  long  overland  journey  to  Oregon,  but  the 
Oregon,  1835-  interest  of  the  people  at  Jarge  in  the  possession  of  that  distant 
region  was  due  chiefly  to  the  splendid  energy  and  enthusiasm 
of  one  man,  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman  of  New  York.  Whitman  was 
sent  out  by  the  American  Board  of  Missions  to  labor  for  the 
conversion  of  the  Pacific-coast  Indians  in  1835.  Tne  next  vear 
he  returned  to  the  East  and  took  back  to  Oregon  with  him  a 
little  company  of  helpers,  including  two  women,  —  his  newly 
married  wife  and  the  bride  of  one  of  his  colleagues,  —  the  first 
white  women  to  make  the  toilsome  and  dangerous  wagon  trip 
across  the  Western  prairies  and  the  Rockies.  A  few  years  later 
(1842),  when  there  was  danger  that  the  American  Board  would 
discontinue  its  station  in  southern  Oregon,  Whitman  made  a 
winter's  journey  of  nearly  4000  miles  back  to  the  headquarters 
of  the  Board  in  Boston  to  urge  the  continuance  of  the  work. 
On  his  return  trip  to  Oregon  he  was  of  inestimable  service  in 
helping  conduct  a  company  of  several  hundred  emigrants  from 
the  Middle  West  to  the  Columbia  valley.  The  actual  settlement 
of  this  colony  in  Oregon  constituted  the  most  powerful  argu 
ment  in  our  claim  to  the  region  from  that  time  on. 

While  Oregon  was  thus  being  opened  for  American  settle 
ment,  a  most  exciting  incident  in  the  great  drama  of  expansion 
was  being  enacted  on  our  southern  borders,  in  Texas.  We 
must  again  revert  to  the  famous  treaty  of  1819  with  Spain, 
which  fixed  our  southwestern  boundary  at  the  Sabine  River. 
Two  years  after  the  treaty  of  1819  Mexico  joined  the  long  list 
of  Spanish-American  colonies  which  had  established  their  in 
dependence  of  the  mother  country.  The  government  of  the  new 


Texas  333 

"  Republic  of  Mexico  "  was  very  weak,  however,  especially  in  the 
provinces  lying  at  a  distance  from  the  capital.  Texas  (joined 
with  Coahuila)  formed  one  of  these  provinces,  and  for  several 
reasons  chafed  under  the  weak  but  imperious  control  of  Mexico. 

In  the  first  place,  since  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen-  474.  Ameri- 
tury  Americans  l  had  been  crossing  the  Sabine  into  Texas,  un-  in^he  Mexi- 


til  by  1830  there  were  nearly  20,000  of  them  in  the  province.  The      Txas! 


Americans  at  first  had  been  welcomed  and  given  large  tracts  of 
land  by  the  Mexicans,  partly  in  return  for  the  aid  they  furnished 
the  latter  in  their  revolt  from  Spain.  But  when  the  number  of 
Americans  increased  to  the  point  where  they  threatened  to  rule 
the  province,  the  Mexican  president  Bustamante  issued  an  edict 
(1830)  forbidding  all  further  immigration  from  the  United  States 
into  Texas.2  At  the  same  time  the  Mexican  government  sub 
jected  the  province  of  Texas,  with  its  predominating  Protestant 
religion,  its  traditions  of  representative  government,  and  its  free 
dom  of  speech  and  press,  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Spanish 
officials  of  the  smaller  province  of  Coahuila.  Evidently  the  intent 
of  the  Mexican  government  was  to  put  an  end  to  American  in 
fluence  in  Texas. 

After   petitioning  Mexico   for  a  separation    from   Coahuila  475.  Texas 
(1833),  and  in  reply  having  a  detachment  of  Mexican  troops  sent 


into  their  province  to  maintain  order,  and  a  Mexican  fleet  sent  to  Mexico, 

April,  1836 

their  coast  to  blockade  their  ports,  the  Texans,  on  the  second 

1  The  term  "  American,"  of  course,  in  its  literal  sense  means  an  inhabitant 
or  citizen  of  America  —  North,  South,  or  Central.    But,  as  we  have  no  single  word 
to  denote  an  inhabitant  or  citizen  of  the  United  States,  we  quite  commonly  use 
the  term  "  American  "  for  that  purpose,  calling  the  other  "  Americans  "  Cana 
dians,  Mexicans,  Brazilians,  etc. 

2  Alexis  de  Tocqueville,  our  most  distinguished  foreign  critic  in  the  first  half 
of  the  nineteenth   century,  wrote  shortly  after   1830:  "In  the  course  of  the 
last  few  years,  the  Anglo-Americans  have  penetrated  into  this  province  [Texas], 
which  is  still  thinly  peopled.    They  purchase  land,  they  produce  the  commodities 
of  the  country,  and  supplant  the  original  population.    It  may  be  easily  foreseen 
that  if  Mexico  takes  no  step  to  check  this  change,  the  province  of  Texas  will 
soon  cease  to  belong  to  her"  (Democracy  in  America,  Vol.  I,  p.  448).    In  a 
hundred  years  Spain  had  brought  less  than  3000  white  colonists  to  Texas,  while 
in  the  single  decade  1817-1827,  about  12,000  Americans  crossed  the  borders 
into  the  province. 


334 


Slavery  and  the  West 


of  March,  1836,  declared  their  independence,  and  drove  the 
Mexican  troops  across  their  border.  Santa  Anna,  the  new 
Mexican  president,  a  man  of  perfidious  and  cruel  character,  led 
an  army  of  6000  troops  in  person  to  punish  the  rebellious  prov 
ince  of  Texas.  His  march  was  marked  with  horrible  atrocities. 
At  the  Alamo,  a  mission  building  near  San  Antonio,  a  garrison 
of  1 66  Texans  was  absolutely  exterminated,  even  to  the  sick  in 
the  hospital  ward;  and  a  little  further  on,  at  La  Bahia,  the 
defenders  were  massacred  in  cold  blood  after  their  surrender. 
Santa  Anna  with  some  1500  troops  was  met  at  the  San  Jacinto 


476.  The 
republic  of 
Texas 


The  Convent  and  Grounds  of  the  Alamo 

River  (April  21,  1836)  by  a  force  of  about  750  Texan  volun 
teers  under  General  Sam  Houston,  a  veteran  of  the  War  of 
1812,  and  an  ex-governor  of  Tennessee.  The  Mexican  army 
was  utterly  routed  and  Santa  Anna  himself  fell  into  Houston's 
hands  as  a  prisoner  of  war. 

The  independence  of  Texas  was  won.  A  republic  was  immedi 
ately  set  up  with  Houston  as  president,  and  a  constitution  was 
adopted  patterned  after  those  of  the  American  commonwealths. 
Slavery  was  legitimized  in  the  new  republic,  but  the  importation 
of  slaves  from  any  place  except  the  United  States  was  forbid 
den.  Some  50,000  out  of  the  68,000  inhabitants  of  Texas 
were  Americans,  and  the  sentiment  of  President  Houston,  the 


Texas 


335 


legislature,  and  the  people  at  large  was  overwhelmingly  in  favor 
of  annexation  to  the  United  States. 

The  administration  at  Washington  was  also  in  favor  of  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  and  had  been  ever  since  Mexico  had  secured 
its  independence  from  Spain.  In  1827  President  John  Quincy 
Adams  had  offered  Mexico  $1,000,000  for  Texas;  and  Presi 
dent  Jackson  had  twice  tried  to  purchase  the  province  (1829, 
1835),  raising  Adams's  offer  to  $5,000,000.  In  fact,  some  of 

Jackson's  opponents  asserted 
that  when  Mexico,  in  1835, 
refused  his  last  offer  of 
$5,000,000  he  secretly  urged 
his  old  friend  Houston  to 
precipitate  the  revolution  of 
the  follawing  year,  by  which 
Texas  won  its  independence. 
However,  there  is  little 
probability  that  this  charge 
was  true,  for  Jackson  refused 
to  conclude  a  treaty  of  annex 
ation  with  Texas,  even  after 
both  Houses  of  Congress  had 
recognized  the  independence 


477.  Attempts 
of  the  United 
States  to  an 
nex  Texas  by 
purchase, 
1827-1835 


478.  Jackson 
refuses  to 
anger  Mexico 
by  the  an 
nexation  of 
Texas,  1836 


Sam  Houston,  First  President  of  the 
Republic  of  Texas 


of  the  province  by  large  ma 
jorities.  We  were  at  peace 
with  Mexico,  though  on  bad 

terms  with  her  on  account  of  claims  of  damages  to  American 
property  in  Texas  and  to  American  commerce  in  the  Gulf. 
Mexico  still  claimed  Texas  as  a  dependency,  and  although  there 
was  apparently  little  chance  of  her  recovering  the  province,  the 
revolt  was  still  too  recent  to  make  the  Texan  republic  an 
assured  fact.  Under  these  circumstances,  for  the  United  States 
to  take  Texas  without  the  consent  of  Mexico  would  have  been 
a  breach  of  the  law  of  nations,  and  would  probably  have 
brought  on  war  between  the  two  countries. 


336  Slavery  and  the  West 

479.  van  When  Van  Buren  entered  the  White  House  in  March,  1837, 
Sannexa-Sed  whatever  hope  there  was  of  the  speedy  annexation  of  Texas 
tion,  1837-1841  vanished.   The  abolitionist  struggle  in  Congress  was  at  its  height. 

The  moment  was  most  inauspicious  for  the  attempt  to  add  the 
immense  slave  area  of  Texas  to  the  Union.  Besides,  Van  Buren 
was  a  New  Yorker,  and  had  little  desire  for  extending  the  do 
main  of  slavery.  He  refused  to  consider  any  proposition  for 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  even  came  to  an  agreement  with 
Mexico  (which  that  country  promptly  broke)  for  the  settlement 
of  the  American  claims.  So  the  whole  matter  slumbered  through 
Van  Buren's  administration,  and  played  no  part  at  all  in  the 
turbulent  election  of  1840,  in  which  the  new  Whig  party  over 
threw  the  Jackson  machine  and  took  revenge  on  Van  Buren 
for  the  official  corruption  and  financial  demoralization  for  which 
they  believed  his  patron  and  predecessor  was  responsible. 

THE  "  REOCCUPATION  "  OF  OREGON  AND  THE 
"  REANNEXATION  "  OF  TEXAS 

480.  presi-          The  triumph  of  the  Whigs  in  1840  was  short-lived.    Presi- 

dent  Harrison,  the  old  hero  of  Tippecanoe,  died  a  month  after 
his  inauguration,  and  Vice  President  Tyler  succeeded  to  his 
place.  Tyler  was  a  Virginian  and  a  Democrat.  He  had  been 
put  on  the  Whig  ticket  with  Harrison  in  order  to  win  votes  in 
the  South.  The  only  bond  of  union  between  him  and  men  like 
Adams,  Clay,  Harrison,  and  Webster  was  his  enmity  for  Andrew 
Jackson,  which  had  been  strong  enough  to  drive  him  into  the 
Whig  party.  On  the  great  questions  of  public  policy,  such  as  a 
strong  central  government,  internal  improvements,  the  tariff, 
and  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  he  was  opposed  to  the 
Whig  leaders ;  and  being  a  man  of  independent  judgment  and 
strong  will,  he  had  no  intention  of  submitting  to  the  dictation 
of  Henry  Clay.1 

1  We  have  already  seen  (p.  296)  why  Clay  was  not  an  available  candidate  for 
the  presidency  in  1840.  Still,  as  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Whig  party,  he 
expected  to  control  the  administration  and  had  already  quarreled  with  Harrison. 


Texas  337 

When  the  Whig  Congress  passed  a  bill  for  the  rechartering  481.  Tyler 
of  the  National  Bank  in  the  summer  of  1841,  Tyler  vetoed  it; 
and  even  after  Congress  had  modified  the  bill  in  a  way  that,  the 
leaders  thought  would  meet  the  President's  views,  Tyler  still  re-  whig  party 
fused  his  consent.  As  the  Whigs  did  not  have  the  necessary 
two-thirds  majority  in  Congress  to  override  the  President's  veto, 
the  bill  was  lost,  and  with  it  the  dearest  project  of  the  Whig 
leaders.  For  this  "insubordination"  Tyler  was  read  out  of  the 
Whig  party,  and  every  member  of  his  cabinet  resigned  except 
Daniel  Webster,  who  was  in  the  midst  of  delicate  negotiations 
with  Lord  Ashburton  over  the  boundary  between  Maine  and 
Canada. 

With  the  cabinet  reorganized,  and  the  Whigs  of  Harrison's  482.  Daniel 
choice  replaced  by  men  of  Tyler's  views,  the  Southern  members  ^esSomthe 
of  Congress  began  to  revive  the  question  of  the  annexation  of  Cabinet,  1842; 
Texas,  making  no  effort  to  conceal  the  fact  that  they  wanted  tion  policy  is 
more  territory  for  the  extension  of  slavery.  But  while  Daniel 
Webster  was  Secretary  of  State,  there  was  little  hope  of  push 
ing  the  annexation  policy.  Webster  was  a  strong  antislavery 
Whig,  who  had  put  himself  on  record  against  the  acquisition  of 
Texas  in  a  great  speech  made  in  New  York  City,  on  his  way 
home  from  the  Congressional  session  of  1836-1837.  "Texas  is 
likely  to  be  a  slaveholding  country,"  he  said,  "and  I  frankly 
avow  my  entire  unwillingness  to  do  anything  that  shall  extend 
the  slavery  of  the  African  race  on  this  continent,  or  add  other 
slaveholding  states  to  the  Union.  When  I  say  I  regard  slavery 
as  a  great  moral,  social,  and  political  evil,  I  only  use  language 
which  has  been  adopted  by  distinguished  men,  themselves  citi 
zens  of  slaveholding  states.1 ...  I  shall  do  nothing,  therefore, 
to  favor  or  encourage  its  further  extension."  But  a  few  months 
after  the  Webster-Ashburton  treaty  of  1842  was  concluded, 
Webster  was  replaced  by  a  Secretary  of  State  (Upshur,  of  Vir 
ginia)  whose  views  were  favorable  to  the  annexation  policy. 

1  Unfortunately,  as  we  have  seen  (pp.  321-325),  such  language  was  rapidly 
becoming  discredited  in  the  South  at  the  very  time  when  Webster  was  speaking. 


338  Slavery  and  the  West 

483.  The  an-       It  was  just  at  this  time  that  Marcus  Whitman  made  his 
famous  horseback  journey  across  the  continent  to  save  the  mis- 


Oregon  and      sion  stations  in  Oregon.    The  popular  interest  in  that  distant 

TGXclS 

region,  which  followed  the  publication  of  Whitman's  pamphlets 
and  his  successful  colonization  of  the  Columbia  valley,  furnished 
the  annexationists  with  fine  political  capital.  By  combining  the 
demand  for  Oregon  with  the  demand  for  Texas  they  could 
appeal  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  on  a  platform  which 
emphasized  the  expansion  of  American  territory  rather  than  the 
extension  of  the  area  of  slavery.  With  Oregon  they  might  win 
the  Northern  expansionists  who  were  opposed  to  annexing  Texas 
on  account  of  slavery.  Thus  Oregon  was  used  as  a  makeweight 
for  Texas. 

484.  Growth        As  the  year  1843  passed,  the  policy  of  both  Great  Britain 
sioiSst^nS-  and   Mexico   strengthened  the  expansionist  sentiment  in  the 
ment,  1843       United  States.    The  British  ministry  curtly  rejected  the  offer  of 

our  government  to  divide  Oregon  by  running  the  boundary  line  « 
of  49°  north  latitude  to  the  Pacific  ;  and  Mexico,  besides  break 
ing  the  agreement  made  with  Van  Buren  for  the  adjustment  of 
American  claims,  notified  our  State  Department  that  any  move 
to  annex  Texas  would  be  regarded  as  an  act  of  war.  Although 
we  were  a  strong  nation  and  Mexico  a  weak  one,  there  were 
many  Americans  who  felt  that  we  had  borne  long  enough  with 
the  violence  and  perfidy  of  our  Southern  neighbor. 

485.  Danger        Moreover,  there  were  unmistakable  signs  that  Great  Britain 
terventfon^n"  was  using  her  influence  to  keep  us  out  of  Texas.    She  built  and 

even  officered  Mexican  war  steamers,  which  ravaged  the  Texan 
coast.  Her  ships  were  hovering  off  the  coast  of  California 
(which  was  part  of  Mexico),  ready  to  aid  the  establishment 
there  of  English  colonies  authorized  by  Mexico,  "to  keep  out 
the  Americans."  Moreover,  Mexico  owed  about  $50,000,000 
to  British  capitalists,  for  which  her  lands  to  the  north  and  west 
of  the  Rio  Grande  were  mortgaged.  An  independent  state  of 
Texas  under  British  protection  would  furnish  England  a  market 
for  her  cotton  manufactures,  unhampered  by  the  tariff  of  the 


Texas  339 

United  States.  Our  minister  to  Paris  wrote  to  the  Secretary 
of  State  in  1845,  "There  is  scarcely  any  sacrifice  England  would 
not  make  to  prevent  Texas  from  coming  into  our  possession." 

When,  therefore,  the  cabinet  office  of  Secretary  of  State  was  486.  cai- 
again  made  vacant,  by  the  tragic  death  of  Mr. Upshur1  (February, 
1844),  President  Tyler  appointed  John  C.  Calhoun,  who  was 
an  ardent  annexationist,  for  the  express  purpose  of  negotiating 
a  treaty  securing  Texas.  Calhoun  speedily  concluded  the  treaty, 
and  the  President  sent  it  to  the  Senate,  April  22,  1844.  But 
the  Senate,  on  June  8,  refused  by  a  large  majority  to  ratify  it. 
Besides  the  strong  antislavery  men  of  the  North,  many  Southern 
ers  voted  against  the  treaty  for  various  reasons  :  because  Calhoun 
had  overstepped  his  powers  in  sending  men  and  ships  to  pro 
tect  Texas  from  Mexican  interference  while  the  treaty  was  under 
discussion ;  because  they  saw  in  it  a  bid  on  his  part  for  the 
presidency  ;  because  they  thought  that  he  deliberately  misrepre 
sented  Great  Britain's  attitude  in  order  to  hasten  annexation ; 
because  there  were  many  speculators  in  Texan  lands  trying  to 
influence  senators  in  the  lobbies  of  Congress  to  vote  for  the 
treaty ;  because  they  were  not  ready  to  invite  war  with  Mexico ; 
because  they  doubted  the  power  of  the  President  and  Senate 
to  annex  an  independent  foreign  state  by  treaty. 

While  Calhoun's  treaty  was  being  discussed  in  the  Senate,  487.  The  na- 
the  Whig  and  Democratic  conventions  met  to  select  their  candi-  ventions*f 
dates  for  the  presidential  campaign.    The  Whigs,  rejoicing  that  l844 
the    day    of   Tyler's    retirement    was    at   hand,    unanimously 
nominated  Henry  Clay.    On  the  subject  of  expansion  their  plat 
form  was  silent.    They  relied  entirely  on  the  record  and  the 
popularity  of  their  candidate.    In  the  Democratic  convention 
the  friends  of  annexation  carried  the  day  after  a  hard  battle. 
Van  Buren  was  rejected,  and  James  K.  Polk  of  Tennessee  was 
nominated  on  the  eighth  ballot. 

1  He  was  killed  by  the  explosion  of  a  gun  on  the  United  States  warship 
Princeton,  which  a  party  of  government  officials  were  visiting  as  she  lay  at 
anchor  in  the  Potomac,  a  little  below  Washington. 


340 


•Slavery  and  the  West 


488.  James 
K.  Polk,  the 
first  «  dark 
horse  "  in  the 
presidential 
race 


489.  The 
Democratic 
platform  of 
1844 


490.  Henry 
Clay's  letters 
on  Texas 


Polk  was  an  ardent  annexationist.  He  had  been  a  member 
of  Congress  from  1825  to  1839,  and  Speaker  of  the  House 
during  the  stormy  days  of  the  abolitionist  debates.  In  1839  he 
was  elected  governor  of  Tennessee.  Although  by  no  means 
an  obscure  man,  Polk  had  not  been  regarded  as  a  presidential 
possibility  before  the  convention  met.  He  is  the  first  example 
of  the  "  dark  horse  " x  in  the  national  convention ;  and  it  is  a 
significant  fact  that  from  this  time  to  the  choice  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  1860,  the  men  of  first  rank  (like  Clay,  Calhoun, 
Webster,  and  Douglas)  were  passed  over  for  a  more  "  available," 
that  is,  a  compromise,  candidate.  It  is  the  most  striking  proof 
of  the  influence  of  the  slavery  question  on  our  politics ;  for  no 
other  issue  since  the  establishment  of  our  government  had  been 
strong  enough  to  keep  from  the  highest  offices  the  statesmen 
of  conspicuous  genius. 

The  Democrats  went  into  the  campaign  of  1844  with  a  frank 
appeal  to  the  expansionist  sentiment  of  the  country.  Their  plat 
form  was  the  reoccupation  of  Oregon  and  the  reannexation  of 
Texas.  The  prefix  re  in  this  confident  declaration  implied  that 
Oregon  was  already  ours  by  discovery,  settlement,  and  treaty ; 
and  that  Texas  had  been  really  purchased  with  Louisiana  in  1803 
but  had  been  weakly  surrendered  to  Spain  in  the  treaty  of  1819. 

Three  days  before  the  Whig  convention  met,  Henry  Clay 
had  made  public  a  letter  declaring  against  the  annexation  of 
Texas  as  likely  to  bring  on  war  with  Mexico  and  to  reopen  the 
painful  subject  of  slavery.  After  his  nomination,  however,  he 
tried  to  win  the  support  of  the  South  and  at  the  same  time 
hold  the  support  of  the  antislavery  men  of  the  North.  In  a 
second  letter,  published  in  August,  he  said  he  should  like  to 
see  Texas  annexed  if  it  could  be  accomplished  "  without  dis 
honor,  without  war,  with  the  common  consent  of  the  nation, 
and  on  just  and  fair  terms,"  adding  that  "  the  subject  of  slavery 

1  A  term  borrowed  from  the  language  of  the  race  track  to  denote  a  horse  of 
whose  qualities  and  speed  nothing  is  known ;  then  used  in  politics  of  an  obscure 
candidate  who  "  comes  up  from  behind  "  and  wins  the  race. 


Texas  341 

ought  not  to  affect  the  question  one  way  or  the  other."  Dis 
satisfied  with  Clay's  "  straddle  "  on  the  slavery  issue  in  Texas, 
enough  Whigs  in  New  York  and  Michigan  cast  their  votes  for 
the  abolitionist  James  C.  Birney  (who  was  again  the  candidate 
of  the  Liberty  party)  to  give  those  two  states,  and  therewith 
the  election,  to  Polk. 

Tyler  interpreted  the  election  of  Polk  as  the  indorsement  by  491.  Texas 
the  American  people  of  the  policy  of  the  immediate  annexation 
of  Texas  and  Oregon.  He  therefore,  at  the  opening  of  his  last 
Congress  (December,  1844),  sent  all  the  papers  relative  to  the  i,  1845 
Calhoun  treaty  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  suggested 
that  Congress  might  admit  Texas  without  any  treaty,  under  the 
clause  of  the  Constitution  which  gives  it  the  right  to  "  admit 
new  states  into  this  Union."  In  February,  1845,  both  branches 
of  Congress,  acting  on  Tyler's  recommendation,  passed  resolu 
tions  in  favor  of  annexing  Texas,  the  House  by  a  vote  of  132 
to  76,  the  Senate  by  the  close  vote  of  27  to  25.  President 
Tyler  signed  the  bill  om  the  first  of  March,  three  days  before 
his  retirement  from  office. 

The  people  of  Texas  welcomed  the  resolutions  of  Congress  492.  The 


with  a  rejoicing  almost  as  tumultuous  as  that  which  had  greeted 


the  news  of  the  victory  of  San  Jacinto.  Late  in  the  year  1845 
the  republic  of  Texas  became  a  state  of  the  Union  on  gener 
ous  terms.  She  left  to  the  United  States  government  the  adjust 
ment  of  her  boundaries  with  Mexico  ;  handed  over  to  the  United 
States  her  public  lands  and  buildings,  her  ports,  harbors,  forts, 
and  arsenals  ;  agreed  to  consider  the  proposition  of  the  division 
of  her  territory  into  five  states  if  Congress  so  wished  ;  and 
agreed  to  the  prohibition  of  slavery  north  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  line  of  36°  30'. 

Texas  being  safely  in  the  Union,  the  new  President  began  to  493.  "Fifty- 
redeem  his  campaign  pledge  for  the  "  reoccupation  "  of  Oregon,  *  3 

In  his  first  message  to  Congress  (December,  1845)  he  asserted 
the  claims  of  the  United  States  to  the  whole  of  the  Oregon 
region  from  the  Spanish-Mexican  boundary  on  the  south  (42°) 


342  Slavery  and  the  West 

to  the  Russian  boundary  on  the  north  (54°  40').  Great  Britain 
must  retire  from  the  whole  of  Oregon,  back  to  the  Hudson 
Bay  territory.  "  Fifty-four  forty  or  fight "  was  the  popular  war- 
cry  in  which  the  victorious  Democrats  voiced  their  preposterous 
claims  to  the  whole  of  Oregon. 

494.  settle-  However,  as  Mexico  began  to  make  preparations  for  carry- 
oregonbound-  mg  out  ner  threats  of  war,  the  administration  at  Washington 
ary,  June,  grew  more  moderate  in  its  claims  to  Oregon.  Neither  Polk  nor 
Congress  had  any  intention,  at  such  a  crisis,  of  going  to  war 
with  England  over  a  difference  of  five  degrees  of  latitude  on 
our  northwestern  boundary.  So,  after  a  rather  amusing  cam 
paign  of  correspondence,  in  which  the  President  and  the  Senate 
each  tried  to  throw  on  the  other  the  responsibility  of  deserting 
the  blustering  platform  of  "  Fifty-four  forty  or  fight,"  a  treaty 
was  made  with  Great  Britain  (June,  1846)  continuing  the  par 
allel  of  49°,  from  the  Rockies  to  the  Pacific,  as  the  northern 
boundary  of  the  United  States. 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR 

495.  The  The  annexation  of  Texas  was  a  perfectly  fair  transaction, 
legality  of  the   „  .  .  .  ..    _,         T     .  .         rt     .. 
annexation  of  For  nine   years,   since    the   victory  of  San  Jacmto   in    1836, 

Texas  had  been  an  independent  republic,  whose  reconquest 
Mexico  had  not  the  slightest  chance  of  effecting.  In  fact,  at 
the  very  moment  of  annexation,  the  Mexican  government, 
under  the  guidance  of  England,  had  agreed  to  recognize  the 
independence  of  Texas,  on  condition  that  the  republic  should 
not  join  itself  to  the  United  States.  We  were  not  taking 
Mexican  territory,  then,  in  annexing  Texas  ;  and  the  Mexican 
government  was  violating  the  law  of  nations  when  it  threatened 
the  United  States  with  war,  and  actually  massed  its  troops  on 
the  Texan  border. 

496.  Polk  Texas  had  come  into  the  Union  claiming  the  Rio  Grande  as 
attempts  to 

negotiate        her  southern  and  western  boundary.    By  the  terms  of  annexa- 

with  Mexico    tion  all  bounciary  disputes  with  Mexico  were  referred  by  Texas 


Texas 


343 


to  the  government  of  the  United  States.  President  Polk,  accord 
ingly,  sent  John  Slidell  of  Louisiana  to  Mexico  in  the  autumn 
of  1845  to  adjust  any  differences  over  the  Texan  claims.  But 
though  Slidell  labored  for  months  to  get  a  hearing,  two  succes 
sive  presidents  of  revolution-torn  Mexico  refused  to  recognize 
him,  and  he  was  dismissed  from  the  country  in  August,  1846. 

The  massing  of 
Mexican  troops 
on  the  south 
bank  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  coupled 
with  the  refusal 
of  the  Mexican 
government  to  re 
ceive  Slidell,  led 
President  Polk 
to  order  General 
Zachary  Taylor, 
the  commander 
of  our  troops  in 
Texas,  to  move 
to  the  borders. 
Taylor  marched 
to  the  Rio  Grande 
and  fortified  a 
position  on  the 
northern  bank. 


Taylor's  march  1846-184?       . 
Scott's  march  1847  ...... 

Kearney's  march  1846  ....... 

Doniphan's  march  1846- 1847  ,+H+H* 
Fr6mont's  route  1846 


497.  General 
Taylor  at 
tacked  on  the 
Rio  Grande, 
April,  1846 


The  Campaigns  of  the  Mexican  War 


The  Mexican  and  the  American  troops  were  thus  facing  each 
other  across  the  river.  When  Taylor  refused  to  retreat  to  the 
Nueces,  the  Mexican  commander  crossed  the  Rio  Grande,  am 
bushed  a  scouting  force  of  63  Americans,  and  killed  or  wounded 
1 6  of  them  (April  24,  1846). 

When  the  news  of  this  attack  reached  Washington  early  in 
May,  Polk  sent  a  special  message  to  Congress,  concluding  with 
these  words :  "  We  have  tried  every  effort  at  reconciliation.  .  .  . 


498.  The 
United  States 
accepts  war 
with  Mexico 


344 


Slavery  and  the  West 


499.  Taylor 
Mexico 


500.  commo- 
seizes  Caii- 


501.  Kearny 
occupy1 


But  now,  after  reiterated  menaces,  Mexico  has  passed  the 
boundary  of  the  United  States  [the  Rio  Grande],  has  invaded 
our  territory  and  shed  American  blood  on  American  soil.  She 
has  proclaimed  that  hostilities  have  commenced,  and  that  the 
two  nations  are  at  war.  A  war  exists,  and,  notwithstanding 
all  our  efforts  to  avoid  it,  exists  by  the  act  of  Mexico  herself. 
We  are  called  upon  by  every  consideration  of  duty  and  patriot 
ism  to  vindicate  with  decision  the  honor,  the  rights,  and  the 
interests  of  our  country."  The  House  and  the  Senate,  by  very 
large  majorities  (174  to  14,  and  40  to  2),  voted  50,000  men  and 
$10,000,000  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 

Meanwhile,  General  Taylor  had  driven  the  Mexicans  back  to 
the  south  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande  in  the  battles  of  Palo  Alto 
and  Resaca  de  la  Palma.  Six  days  after  the  vote  of  Congress 
sanctioning  the  war,  he  crossed  the  Rio  Grande  and  occupied 
the  Mexican  frontier  town  of  Matamoros,  whence  he  proceeded 
during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1846  to  capture  the  capitals 
of  three  of  the  Mexican  provinces. 

As  soon  as  hostilities  began,  Commodore  Sloat,  in  command 
°f  our  squadron  in  the  Pacific,  was  ordered  to  seize  California, 
and  General  Kearny,  who  was  at  Fort  Leavenworth  (Kansas), 
was  sent  to  invade  New  Mexico.  The  occupation  of  California 
was  practically  undisputed.  Mexico  had  only  the  faintest 
shadow  of  authority  in  the  province,  and  the  6000  white  in 
habitants  made  no  objection  to  seeing  the  flag  of  the  United 
States  raised  over  their  forts. 

Kearny  started  with  1800  men  from  Fort  Leavenworth  in 
June,  and  on  the  eighteenth  of  August  defeated  the  force  of 
4000  Mexicans  and  Indians  which  disputed  his  occupation  of 
Santa  Fe.  After  garrisoning  this  important  post  he  detached 
Colonel  Doniphan  with  850  men  to  march  through  the  northern 
provinces  of  Mexico  and  effect  a  juncture  with  General  Taylor 
at  Monterey,  while  he  himself  with  only  100  men  continued 
his  long  journey  of  1500  miles  to  San  Diego,  California,  where 
he  joined  Sloat's  successor,  Stockton. 


Texas  345 

After  these  decided  victories  and  uninterrupted  marches  of  502.  Mexico 
Taylor,  Kearny,  Sloat,  Stockton,  and  Doniphan,  the  Mexican  makepeace, 
government  was  offered  a  fair  chance  to  treat  for  peace,  which  l846 
it  refused.    Then  President  Polk  decided,  with  the  unanimous 
consent  of  his  cabinet,  to  strike  at  the  heart  of  Mexico.    General 
Winfield  Scott,  a  hero  of  the  War  of  1812,  was  put  in  command 
of  an  army  of  about  12,000  men,  to  land  at  Vera  Cruz  and 
fight  his  way  up  the  mountains  to  the  capital  city  of  Mexico. 

Santa  Anna,  who,  by  the  rapid  shift  of  revolutions,  was  again  503.  Taylor's 
dictator  in  Mexico,  heard  of  this  plan  to  attack  the  capital,  and  BuenZvista 
hastened  north  with   20,000  troops   to    surprise  and  destroy 
Taylor's   army  before   Scott   should  have  time   to  take  Vera 
Cruz.    But  Taylor,  with  an  army  one  fourth  the  size  of  Santa 
Anna's,  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat  on  the  Mexicans  at  Buena 
Vista  (February  23,  1847),  securing  the  Californian  and  New 
Mexican  conquests,  and  driving  Santa  Anna  back  to  defend 
the  city  of  Mexico. 

Scott  took  Vera  Cruz  in  March,  and  worked  his  way  slowly  504.  General 
but  surely,  against  forces  always  superior  to  his  own,  up  to  the 


very  gates  of  Mexico  (August,  1847).  Here  he  paused,  by  the  Mexico,  sep- 
President's  orders,  to  allow  the  Mexicans  another  chance  to  1847 
accept  the  terms  of  peace  which  the  United  States  offered,  — 
the  cession  by  Mexico  of  New  Mexico  and  California  in  return 
for  a  large  payment  of  money.  The  Mexican  commissioners, 
however,  insisted  on  having  both  banks  of  the  Rio  Grande  and 
all  of  California  up  to  the  neighborhood  of  San  Francisco, 
besides  receiving  damages  for  injuries  inflicted  by  the  American 
troops  in  their  invasions.  These  claims  were  preposterous, 
coming  from  a  conquered  country,  and  there  was  nothing  left 
for  Scott  to  do  but  to  resume  military  operations.  Santa  Anna 
defended  the  capital  with  a  force  of  30,000  men,  but  the 
Mexicans  were  no  match  for  the  American  soldiers.  Scott 
stormed  the  heights  of  Chapultepec  and  carried  the  gates  of  the 
city  on  the  thirteenth  of  September,  and  on  the  next  day  entered 
the  Mexican  capital  in  triumph.  Resistance  was  at  an  end. 


346 


Slavery  and  the  West 


505.  Folk's  From  the  beginning  of  the  war  Polk  had  been  negotiating 
fortTto  secure  f°r  peace.  He  had  kept  Slidell  in  Mexico  long  after  the  opening 
1846-  of  hostilities,  and  had  sent  Nicholas  Trist  as  special  peace  com 
missioner  to  join  Scott's  army  at  Vera  Cruz  and  to  offer  Mexico 
terms  of  peace  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  He  had  allowed 
Santa  Anna  to  return  to  Mexico  from  his  exile  in  Cuba  in  the 
summer  of  1846,  because  that  wily  and  treacherous  dictator 
held  out  false  promises  of  effecting  a  reconciliation  between 


Winfield  Scott  Zachary  Taylor 

The  Heroes  of  the  Mexican  War 

Mexico  and  the  United  States.  He  had  asked  Congress  for  an 
appropriation  of  $2,000,000  for  peace  negotiations  when  General 
Taylor  was  still  near  the  Rio  Grande,  ten  days  before  General 
Kearny  had  taken  Santa  Fer  and  the  province  of  New  Mexico, 
and  before  General  Scott's  campaign  had  been  thought  of. 
Folk's  political  opponents  found  it  easy  to  attribute  his  desire 
to  end  the  war  —  or  to  "conquer  a  peace,"  as  he  himself 
phrased  it  —  to  jealousy  of  too  complete  a  victory  of  Generals 
Taylor  and  Scott,  both  of  whom  were  Whigs.  But  the  perusal 


Texas  347 

of  the  careful  diary  which  Polk  has  left  us  gives  the  impression 
of  a  sincere  desire  on  the  part  of  the  administration  to  deal 
justly  and  even  kindly  with  Mexico. 

When  the  Mexican  commissioners  made  advances  for  peace  506.  The 
at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1848,  they  were  given  terms  Guadaiupe- 
almost  as  liberal  as  those  offered  them  before  Scott  had  stormed  Hldal£° 
and  occupied  their  capital.  By  the  treaty  concluded  at  Guada- 
lupe-Hidalgo,  February  2,  1848,  Mexico  was  required  to  cede 
California  and  New  Mexico  to  the  United  States  and  to  recog 
nize  the  Rio  Grande  as  the  southern  and  western  boundary  of 
Texas.  In  return,  the  United  States  paid  Mexico  $15,000,000 
cash,  and  assumed  some  $3,500,000  more  in  claims  of  Amer 
ican  citizens,  which  Mexico  had  agreed  by  the  convention  of 
1840  to  pay,  but  had  later  repudiated.  Considering  the  facts 
that  California  was  scarcely  under  Mexican  control  at  all,  and 
might  have  been  taken  at  any  moment  by  Great  Britain, 
France,  or  Russia ;  that  New  Mexico  was  still  the  almost 
undisturbed  home  of  Indian  tribes ;  that  the  land  from  the 
Nueces  to  the  Rio  Grande  was  almost  a  desert l ;  and  that  the 
American  troops  were  in  possession  of  the  Mexican  capital,  the 
terms  offered  Mexico  were  very  generous.  Polk  was  urged  by 
many  to  annex  the  whole  country  of  Mexico  to  the  United 
States,  but  he  refused  to  consider  such  a  proposal. 

The  Mexican  War  has  generally  been  condemned  by  Amer-  507.  The  jus- 
ican  historians  as  "the  foulest  blot  on  our  national  honor,"  a  Mexican  war 
war  forced  upon  Mexico  by  slaveholders  greedy  for  new  ter 
ritory,  a  perfect  illustration  of  La  Fontaine's  fable  of  the  wolf 
picking  a  quarrel  with  the  lamb  solely  for  an  excuse  to  devour 
him.    War  is  a  horrid  thing  at  best,  and  must  some  day  be 
relegated  by  civilized  nations  to  the  limbo  of  barbarism  along 
with   human    slavery,    the    torture    chamber,    and   the    stake. 

1  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  later  the  greatest  Union  general  in  the  Civil  War,  was  in 
Taylor's  army  on  its  march  to  the  Rio  Grande  in  1846.  Describing  this  march 
in  his  "  Memoirs,"  he  says  (Vol.  I,  p.  48)  :  "  No  inhabitants  were  found  until 
about  thirty  miles  from  San  Antonio ;  some  were  living  underground  for  fear  of 
the  Indians." 


34 8  Slavery  and  the  West 

But  so  far  as  war  can  be  the  just  means  of  settling  any  differ 
ences  between  nations,  the  war  of  1846-1848  with  Mexico  was 
.eminently  just.  That  nation  had  insulted  our  flag,  plundered 
our  commerce,  imprisoned  our  citizens,  lied  to  our  represent 
atives,  and  spurned  our  envoys.  As  early  as  1837  President 
Jackson  said  that  Mexico's  offenses  "  would  justify  in  the  eyes 
of  all  nations  immediate  war."  To  be  sure  we  were  a  strong 
nation  and  Mexico  a  weak  one.  But  weakness  should  not  give 
immunity  to  continued  and  open  insolence.  We  had  a  right 
to  annex  Texas  after  that  republic  had  maintained  its  inde 
pendence  for  nine  years ;  yet  Mexico  made  annexation  a  cause 
of  war.  We  were  willing  to  discuss  the  boundaries  of  Texas 
with  Mexico ;  but  our  accredited  envoy  was  rejected  by  two 
successive  Mexican  presidents,  who  were  afraid  to  oppose  the 
war  spirit  of  their  country.  We  even  refrained  from  taking 
Texas  into  the  Union  until  Great  Britain  had  interfered  so  far 
as  to  persuade  Mexico  to  offer  Texas  her  independence  if  she 
would  refuse  to  join  the  United  States. 

508.  The  If  there  was  anything  disgraceful  in  the  expansionist  pro- 

of°the  annex-  gram  of  the  decade  1840-1850,  it  was  not  the  Mexican  War  but 
ation  of  Texas  the  annexation  of  Texas.  The  position  of  the  abolitionists  on 
this  question  was  clear  and  logical.  They  condemned  the  an 
nexation  of  Texas  as  a  wicked  extension  of  the  slavery  area, 
notwithstanding  all  arguments  about  "  fulfilling  our  manifest 
destiny "  or  "  attaining  our  natural  boundaries."  To  annex 
Texas  might  be  legally  right,  they  said,  but  it  was  morally 
wrong.  Daniel  Webster  expressed  the  sound  view  of  the  ques 
tion  in  his  speech  of  1837  in  New  York  City,  which  we  have 
noticed  on  a  preceding  page  (see  p.  337);  and  James  Russell 
Lowell,  in  his  magnificent  poem  "  The  Present  Crisis  "  (1844), 
warned  the  annexationists  that  "  They  enslave  their  chil 
dren's  children  who  make  compromise  with  sin."  We  certainly 
assumed  a  great  moral  responsibility  when  we  annexed  Texas. 
However,  it  was  not  to  Mexico  that  we  were  answerable,  but 
to  the  enlightened  conscience  of  the  nation. 


Texas  349 

With  our  acquisition  of  the  Oregon  territory  to  the  forty-ninth  509.  Compie- 
parallel  by  the   treaty   of    1846   with  Great   Britain,   and   the  program  of 
cession  of  California  and  New  Mexico  by  the  treaty  of  Guada-  exPansion 
lupe-Hidalgo  in    1848,   the    boundaries   of  the  United  States 
reached  practically  their  present  limits.1   The  work  of  westward 
extension  was  done.    Expansion,  the  watchword  of  the  decade 
1840-1850,  was  dropped  from  our  vocabulary  for  fifty  years, 
and  the  immense  energies  o!  the  nation  were  directed  toward 
finding  a  plan  on  which  the  new  territory  could  be  organized 
in  harmony  with  the  conflicting  interests  of  the  free  and  slave 
sections  of  our  country. 

REFERENCES 

Westward  Expansion  :  G.  P.  GARRISON,  Westward  Extension  (Ameri 
can  Nation  Series),  chaps,  i,  ii,  vi,  vii;  F.  J.  TURNER,  Rise  of  the  New  West 
(Am.  Nation),  chaps,  v-viii ;  E.  E.  SPARKS,  The  Expansion  of  the 
American  People,  chap,  xxv ;  ELLEN  SEMPLE,  American  History  and  its 
Geographical  Conditions,  chaps,  x-xii ;  FRANCIS  PARKMAN,  The  Oregon 
Trail,  chaps,  xix-xxi ;  J.  W.  BURGESS,  The  Middle  Period,  chaps,  xiii, 
xiv  ;  J.  B.  MACMASTER,  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  Vol. 
V,  chap,  liii ;  Vol.  VI,  chap.  Ix  ;  G.  P.  GARRISON,  The  First  Stage  of  the 
Movement  for  the  Annexation  of  Texas  (American  Historical  Review, 
Vol.  X,  pp.  72-96). 

The  "  Reoccupation  "  of  Oregon  and  the  "  Reannexation  "  of  Texas: 
SPARKS,  chaps,  xxv-xxvii;  BURGESS,  chap,  xv ;  L.  G.  TYLER,  Letters 
and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  ix-xii,  xv ;  WILLIAM  MAC- 
DONALD,  Select  Documents  of  United  States  History,  1776-1861,  No.  71  ; 
A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos. 
185-189;  H.  VON  HOLST,  Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States, 
Vol.  II,  chaps,  vi,  vii;  Vol.  Ill,  chaps,  iii-viii,  xiii;  John  C.  Calkotin, 
chap,  viii ;  HORACE  GREELEY,  The  American  Conflict,  Vol.  I,  chap,  xii ; 
G.  P.  GARRISON,  Texas,  chaps,  x-xx ;  Westward  Extension,  chaps,  viii- 
xi ;  J.  W.  FOSTER,  A  Century  of  American  Diplomacy,  chap.  viii. 

The  Mexican  War:  HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  8-14;  MACDONALD,  Nos. 
72-74,  76;  BURGESS,  chap,  xvi;  GREELEY,  Vol.  I,  chap,  xiv;  VON 

1 A  small  strip  south  of  the  Gila  River  (southern  Arizona)  was  bought  from 
Mexico,  through  Mr.  Gadsden,  in  1853,  for  $10,000,000.  The  large  sum  paid  for 
the  Gadsden  Purchase  has  been  called  by  the  critics  of  the  Mexican  War 
"  conscience  money  "  paid  to  Mexico  for  the  provinces  of  which  we  "  robbed  "  her. 


35O  Slavery  and  the  West 

HOLST,  Calhoun,  chap,  ix  ;  Constitutional  History,  Vol.  Ill,  chaps,  viii- 
xii ;  GARRISON,  Westward  Extension,  chaps,  xiii-xv ;  Texas,  chaps,  xxi- 
xxii ;  JAMES  SCHOULER,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  V,  chap, 
xviii ;  President  Folk's  Administration  (Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol. 
LXXVI,  pp.  371-380) ;  U.  S.  GRANT,  Personal  Memoirs,  Vol.  I,  chaps, 
iii-xiii ;  CHARLES  H.  OWEN,  The  Justice  of  the  Mexican  War;  E.  G. 
BOURNE,  The  United  States  and  Mexico,  1847-1848  (American  His 
torical  Review,  Vol.  V,  pp.  491-502) ;  J.  S.  REEVES,  The  Treaty  of 
Guadalupe-Hidalgo  (American  Historical  Review,  Vol.  X,  pp.  309-324). 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  The  Legend  of  Marcus  Whitman:  E.  G.  BOURNE,  The  Legend  of 
Marcus  Whitman  (American  Historical  Review,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  276-300)  ; 
WILLIAM  BARROWS,   Oregon,  pp.  160-254;  SCHOULER,  Vol.  IV,  pp. 
504-514. 

2.  American  Pioneers  in  Texas  :  H.  ADDINGTON  BRUCE,  The  Romance 
of  American  Expansion,  pp.  78-105;    GARRISON,  Texas,  pp.  137-169; 
HART,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  185;  MACMASTER,   Vol.  VI,  pp.  251-266;  HENRY 
BRUCE,  Samuel  Houston,   pp.    64-156;    SARAH    B.  ELLIOTT,  Samuel 
Houston,  pp.  31-72. 

3.  The  Conquest  of  California:  SPARKS,  pp.  324-335;  JOSIAH  ROYCE, 
California,  pp.  48-150;  GARRISON,   Westward  Extension,  pp.  230-243; 
JOHN  BIDWELL,  Fremont  and  the  Conquest  of  California  (The  Century, 
Vol.  XIX,  pp.  518-525). 

4.  The  Webster-Ashburton  Treaty :   MACDONALD,  No.  70  (for  text) ; 
G.  T.   CURTIS,  Life  of  Daniel  Webster,  Vol.   II,  pp.  94-107,  130-172; 
H.  C.  LODGE,  Daniel  Webster,  pp.  241-263;  TYLER,  Vol.  II,  pp.  216- 
243;    T.    H.    BENTON,    Thirty    Years'    View,   Vol.    II,   pp.   420-452; 
SCHOULER,  Vol.    IV,    pp.    403-406;    JARED     SPARKS,    The   Webster- 
Ashburton  Treaty  (The  North  American  Review,  Vol.  LVI,  pp.  452  ff.); 
FOSTER,  pp.  281-286. 

5.  Henry  Clay's  Letter  of  1844  on  the   Admission  of  Texas:    HART, 
Vol.  Ill,  No.  187  ;  CARL  SCHURZ,  Henry  Clay,  Vol.  II,  pp.  242-268 ; 
GARRISON,   Westward  Extension,  pp.  135-140;  EDWARD  STANWOOD, 
History  of  the  Presidency,  pp.  209-225. 


vrc    ;: 

x  A  jj?°p'e  -£ -  -c-  -C-R-  F'*  — v    — 


THE  ACQUISITION 

OF   THE   FAR   WEST 

1S45-1S50 


Texas  (1845) 
Oregon  (1840) 
Mexican  Cession  (1848) 
Gadsden  Purchase  (18.53) 


Original  Area  of  U.S.  82" ,844   " 

Area  of  Louisiana  Purchase      875,025   " 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  COMPROMISE  OF  1850 

THE  NEW  TERRITORY 

An  area  larger  than  the  original  territory  ceded  to  the  United  510.  The  new 
States  by  Great  Britain  at  the  close  of  the  War  of  Independence  ^st* in  ^ 
in  1783,  and  larger  than  the  vast  Louisiana  region  purchased 
from  Napoleon  in  1803,  was  added  to  the  United  States  be 
tween  1845  and  1848  by  the  annexation  of  Texas,  the  Oregon 
treaty,  and  the  Mexican  cession  of  California  and  New  Mexico.1 
The  land  varied  in  value.  Between  the  rich  cotton  areas  of 
Texas  and  the  smiling  valleys  of  California  were  the  arid  plateaus 
and  majestic  canons  of  the  Rockies.  In  Oregon  fine  timber 
and  farm  lands  were  awaiting  the  settler.  The  sudden  acqui 
sition  of  the  Pacific  coast,  in  an  unbroken  line  of  more  than  a 
thousand  miles  from  Puget  Sound  to  San  Diego,  opened  our 
view  upon  the  great  western  ocean  and  made  us  neighbors  of 
China  and  Japan. 

The  new  region,  although  sparsely  populated  by  white  men,  511.  John  c. 
was  still  not  entirely  unknown.     Ever  since  the  days  of  the  ^t 
Lewis  and  Clark  expedition  there  had  been  adventurous  ex-  finder" 
plorers  beating  into  wagon  roads  the  Indian  trails  to  Oregon, 
California,  and   Santa  FC",  and  reporting  to    the   government 
at  Washington  what  rivers  and  mountains,  what  rocks  and  soils 
and  plants  and  peoples  they  found  on  their  journeys.   The  most 

1  Area  of  U.  S.  before  1845  Additions,  1845-1848 


Sq.  miles                                                                              Sq.  miles 

Original  area,  1  783     .    (about)  830,000       Texas,  1845      •     •     •     (about)  390,000 
Louisiana  Purchase,  1803   "       875,000        Oregon,  1846   ....     "       290,000 
Florida  Purchase,  1819       "         65,000        Mexican  Cession,  1848       "        520,000 

1,770,000 

351 

1,200,000 

352  Slavery  and  the  West 

noted  of  these  Western  explorers  was  John  C.  Fremont,  "the 
Pathfinder,"  who  made  four  wonderful  expeditions  to  Oregon 
and  California  in  the  years  1842-1848,  and  even  disobeyed  the 
restraining  orders  of  the  government  in  his  enthusiasm  for  plant 
ing  the  American  flag  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  (see  map, 
opp.  p.  3 So).1  He  was  in  California  in  1846,  and  his  little  "army" 
cooperated  with  Sloat  and  Stockton  in  occupying  the  country. 
512.  The  Even  before  the  Mexican  War  was  over,  it  was  evident  that 

viso,  1846  "  the  United  States  would  demand  the  cession  of  California  and 
New  Mexico  in  its  terms  of  peace.  It  was  evident  also  that  the 
great  question  in  the  acquisition  and  organization  of  the  new 
territory  would  be  the  status  of  slavery  in  it.  On  the  very  day 
the  bill  asking  for  an  appropriation  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the 
peace  negotiations  was  introduced  into  the  House,  David  Wilmot 
of  Pennsylvania  offered  an  amendment  providing  that  "  neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  .  .  .  should  ever  exist  in  any 
part"  of  any  territory  acquired  from  the  republic  of  Mexico. 
The  Wilmot  Proviso  was  carried  in  the  House,  but  defeated  in 
the  Senate,  where,  since  the  admission  of  Florida  and  Texas  in 
1845,  the  slave  states  were  in  the  majority. 

But  the  Wilmot  Proviso  was  not  dropped.  It  was  passed 
again  and  again  by  the  House,  and  was  before  the  country  as 
the  official  demand  of  the  antislavery  men  in  the  organization  of 
the  new  territory.  It  must  be  noted  particularly  that  the  Wilmot 
Proviso  advocated  the  abandonment  of  the  principle  of  th@  Mis 
souri  Compromise  of  i82o,2  since  about  half  of  the  territory  of 
New  Mexico  and  California  lay  south  of  the  parallel  of  36°  30'. 

1  The  account  of  Fremont's  journey  over  the  Sierra  Nevada  mountains  to  the 
valley  of  San  Joaquin,  in  1844,  reads  like  the  romantic  adventures  of  an  explorer 
of  the  sixteenth  century.   For  eleven  months  his  difficult  path  lay  alternately  over 
the  icy  crests  of  the  mountains  and  through  valleys  parched  with  tropical  heat. 
Orders  had  been  sent  from  Washington  to  hold  him  at  St.  Louis,  for  fear  his 
proposed   expedition   would   give  offense   to    Mexico.    But  his  wife   (Senator 
Benton's  daughter)  held  the  message  until  he  was  fairly  started  on  his  way. 

2  It  was  only  the  principle  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  that  was  abandoned, 
for  of  course  the  Wilmot  Proviso  did  not  affect  that  Compromise  itself,  which 
applied  to  the  Louisiana  Purchase  territory  only.  The  United  States  in  1820  could 
make  no  law  touching  the  Spanish  territory  west  of  the  Rockies. 


The  Compromise  of  1830  353 

The  Oregon  region  was  naturally  the  first  to  be  organized,  513.  The  or- 
being  acquired  nearly  two  years  before  the  Mexican  lands.    As  oregonf  and* 

there  was  no  chance  for  the  cultivation  of  cotton,  sugar,  or  rice  in  the  Dfvis 

amendment, 

this  region,  the  controversy  over  slavery  need  not  have  entered  1846-1848 
into  the  Oregon  bill  at  all.  But  the  radical  leaders  of  the  South 
were  not  willing  to  let  Wilmot's  challenge  go  unanswered.  So 
Jefferson  Davis  of  Mississippi,  a  disciple  of  Calhoun,  and 
destined  in  a  few  years  to  become  his  successor  as  the  cham 
pion  of  the  interests  of  the  slave  states,  introduced  an  amend 
ment  into  the  Oregon  bill  to  the  effect  that  "  nothing  should 
authorize  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  Oregon  so  long  as  it  was 
a  territory  of  the  United  States."  Davis's  amendment,  like 
Wilmot's,  was  defeated  ;  and  Oregon  was  admitted  as  a  terri 
tory  without  slavery  in  August,  1848.  But  the  significant  thing 
in  the  debates  of  1846-1848  was  that  both  the  antislavery  and 
the  proslavery  leaders  were  dissatisfied  with  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  made  a  quarter  of  a  century  earlier.  The  one  side  now 
demanded  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  New  Mexico  in  the 
South,  the  other  its  admission  to  Oregon  in  the  North. 

When  therefore  Polk,  in  his  special  message  of  July,  1848,  514.  The 
urged  Congress  to  proceed  to  the  immediate  organization  of 


California  and  New  Mexico,  which  had  been  under  military  Mexican 

y    cession 
regime  since  their  conquest  in  1846,  there  were  three  ways  of 

dealing  with  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  territories  under 
discussion.  The  Wilmot  Proviso  might  be  adopted,  excluding 
slavery  from  the  whole  region  ;  the  Calhoun-Davis  theory  1 
might  be  accepted,  opening  the  whole  region  to  slavery;  or 
the  principle  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  might  be  applied, 
dividing  California  and  New  Mexico  into  free  and  slave  sec 
tions  by  a  parallel  of  latitude  running  to  the  Pacific  coast. 

1  That  theory  was,  briefly,  as  follows  :  slaves  were  private  property  ;  private 
property  was  subject  to  state  laws,  not  national  law;  the  territories  were  the 
common  property  of  the  states,  held  in  trust  by  the  nation;  hence  Congress 
could  not  pass  any  law  excluding  from  the  territories  property  whose  possession 
was  legal  in  the  states.  This  theory  made  the  Missouri  Compromise  uncon 
stitutional. 


354 


Slavery  and  the  West 


515.  The 
campaign  of 
1848 


516.  Lewis 
Cass  and  the 
doctrine  of 
"  squatter 
sovereignty  " 


517.  General 
Taylor,  the 
Whig  nominee 


The  presidential  campaign  of  1848  had  little  effect  on  the 
settlement  of  the  problem  before  the  country.  It  only  showed 
that  both  of  the  political  parties  were  still  trying  to  keep  in  favor 
with  both  sections  of  the  country  in  order  to  avoid  being  split  on 
the  slavery  issue.  The  Democrats  nominated  a  Northern  man 
who  was  opposed  to  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  while  the  Whigs 
nominated  a  Southerner  who  repudiated  the  extreme  proslavery 
doctrine  of  Calhoun  and  Davis. 

Lewis  Cass,  the  Democratic  nominee,  had  been  an  excellent 
governor  of  Michigan  territory  during  the  War  of  1 8 1 2 ,  Secre 
tary  of  War  under  Jackson,  and  minister  to  France  under  Van 
Buren.  He  advocated  allowing  each  territory,  when  the  time 
came  for  it  to  apply  for  admission  to  the  Union,  to  decide  for 
itself  whether  it  should  come  in  as  a  free  or  a  slave  state. 
The  question  would  be  determined  by  the  character  of  the  im 
migration  into  the  territory.  Those  territories  which  were  suit 
able  for  slave  labor  would  naturally  attract  slaveholders,  and 
would  apply  for  admission  to  the  Union  as  slave  states ;  while 
the  others  would  naturally  be  filled  up  with  a  free  population, 
and  come  in  with  state  constitutions  prohibiting  slavery.  This 
doctrine  of  Cass  was  called  "  popular  sovereignty,"  or  more 
familiarly  "squatter  sovereignty,"  because  it  left  to  the  "people" 
or  the  "  squatters "  in  the  territory  the  determination  of  the 
slavery  question  for  themselves. 

The  Whigs  nominated  a  candidate  even  less  pronounced  than 
Cass  in  his  views  on  the  slavery  question,  —  General  Zachary 
Taylor,  the  hero  of  Buena  Vista.  Taylor  was  a  Louisiana  sugar 
planter,  and  the  owner  of  several  hundred  slaves.  But  he  had 
not  manifested  any  interest  in  the  extension  of  slavery.  He  had 
had  no  experience  in  political  affairs  whatever,  and  had  never 
even  voted.  The  Whigs  nominated  him  for  his  brilliant  record 
in  the  Mexican  War,  hoping  that  he  would  repeat  the  sweeping 
victory  of  General  Harrison  in  1840.  "  Old  Rough  and  Ready  " 
was  the  campaign  cry,  recalling  the  "  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too  " 
of  eight  years  before. 


The  Compromise  of  1850  355 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  evasive  attitude  of  both  Whigs  and  518.  The 
_  ,         ,   ^p  £  new  Free-Soil 

Democrats  on  the  slavery  question,  was  the  platform  01  a  new  party,  1848 

party,  the  Free-Soilers.  This  party  was  made  up  of  the  friends 
of  Van  Buren  (who  had  been  "  shelved  "  in  1844  to  make  room 
for  a  candidate  in  favor  of  annexing  Texas),  of  "  Conscience 
Whigs,"  who  were  disgusted  with  the  nomination  by  their  party 
of  a  Louisiana  slaveholder  for  president,  and  of  the  Liberty 
party  of  1844.  The  Free-Soilers  declared  in  their  platform 
that  it  was  "  the  settled  policy  of  the  nation  not  to  extend, 
nationalize,  or  encourage  slavery,  but  to  limit,  localize,  and  dis 
courage  it."  They  inscribed  on  their  banner,  "  Free  soil,  free 
speech,  free  labor,  free  men." 

The  new  party  differed  from  the  Garrison  abolitionists  in  519.  The 
that  it  prized  the  Union  and  accepted  the  Constitution  with  nJ 
all  its  compromises  on  slavery.   It  even  differed  in  a  most  impor-  tlonists 
tant  respect  from  the  Liberty  party,  which  it  largely  absorbed. 
For  the  Liberty  party  of  1844  wished  to  abolish  slavery  in  the 
Southern  states,  where  it  was  protected  by  the  Constitution, 
whereas  the  Free-Soilers  demanded  only  its  exclusion  from  the 
territories  of  the  United  States.    The  Liberty  men  denounced 
the  existence  of  slavery  in  any  part  of  the  Union ;    the  Free- 
Soilers  opposed  the  extension  of  slavery  to  the  'trans-Mississippi 
territories  of  the  Union.    This  distinction  is  of  great  importance, 
because  it  was  the  Free-Soil  doctrine  and  not  the  abolitionist 
doctrine  that  was  made  the  basis  a  few  years  later  of  the  new 
Republican  party,  which  finally  overthrew  slavery. 

The  Free-Soilers  nominated  Van  Buren,  who  had  become  520.  The 
a  pronounced  antislavery  man  after  leaving  the  White  House.  Baylor11  ° 
Although  they  did  not  carry  any  states,  they  elected  enough 
congressmen  to  hold  the  balance  between  Whigs  and  Demo 
crats  in  the  sessions  of  1849 -1851,  and  took  enough  votes  from 
Cass  in  New  York  to  give  that   state,  and  consequently  the 
election,  to  Taylor,  by  an  electoral  vote  of  163  to  12  7.* 

1  The  similar  defeat  of  Clay,  in  1844,  by  the  votes  given  Birney,  the  Liberty 
candidate,  in  New  York,  will  be  recalled  (see  pp.  340-341). 


356 


Slavery  and  the  West 


521.  The 
organization 
of  the  Mexi 
can  cession 
hangs  fire, 
1848-1849 


522.  The 
discovery  of 
gold  in  Cali 
fornia,  Janu 
ary,  1848 


The  last  Congress  under  President  Polk  adjourned  March  4, 
1849,  without  having  taken  any  steps  toward  the  organiza 
tion  of  New  Mexico  and  California.  Slavery  had  been  actually 
excluded  from  the  whole  region  by  a  Mexican  law  of  1837,  but 
Calhoun  contended  that  the  transfer  of  the  land  to  the  United 
States  extinguished  the  Mexican  law  in  it.  He  and  Davis  de 
manded  that  Congress  should  introduce  slavery  into  the  terri 
tory  and  legalize  it  there  by  a  definite  statute.  Their  opponents 
declared,  in  the  words  of  Henry  Clay,  that  "  no  power  in  the 
world  could  make  them  vote  to  establish  slavery  where  it  did 
not  exist."  And  even  President  Taylor,  himself  a  slave  owner, 
went  so  far  as  to  say,  in  an  address  in  Pennsylvania  (August, 
1849),  "The  people  of  the  North  need  have  no  apprehension 
of  the  further  extension  of  slavery."  With  these  divergent  views, 
there  seemed  to  be  as  little  prospect  of  a  speedy  or  peaceful 
organization  of  New  Mexico  and  California  under  Taylor  as 
under  Polk.  But  the  years  1848-1849  brought  a  change  on 
the  Pacific  coast  itself  which  gave  a  new  aspect  to  the  question. 

Just  as  the  final  negotiations  for  peace  with  Mexico  were 
begun  (January,  1848),  gold  was  discovered  in  the  Sacramento 
valley  in  California.  As  the  news  of  the  richness  of  the  deposits 
spread,  a  wild  rush  into  the  gold  fields  began.  Merchants, 
farmers,  physicians,  lawyers,  artisans,  shopkeepers,  and  serv 
ants  abandoned  their  business  to  stake  out  claims  in  the  gold 
valleys,  from  which  thousands  took  their  fortunes  in  a  few 
weeks.1  The  fever  extended  even  to  the  Atlantic  coast.  Men 
started  on  the  nine  months'  sail  around  Cape  Horn,  or,  cross 
ing  the  pestilence-laden  Isthmus  of  Panama,  fought  like  wild 
animals  for  a  passage  on  the  infrequent  ships  sailing  up  to  the 
Californian  coast.  Others  went  "  overland,"  making  their  way 
slowly  across  the  Western  deserts  and  mountains  in  their 
unwieldy  "  prairie  schooners,"  the  monotonous  dread  of  famine 

1  The  product  of  the  California  mines  and  washings  was  fabulous.  The  country 
was  hailed  as  a  modern  El  Dorado.  Five  years  after  the  discovery,  the  gold  yield 
was  $65,000,000  in  a  single  year.  In  fifty  years  over  $2,000,000,000  was  taken 
from  the  mines. 


The  Compromise  of  1850 


357 


and  thirst  varied  only  by  the  excitement  of  Indian  attacks.  The 
immigration  by  sea  and  land  in  the  single  year  1849  raised  the 
population  of  California  from  6000  to  over  85,000  souls. 

The  "  Forty-niners,"  as  these  gold  seekers  were  called,  came 
almost  wholly  from  the  free  states  of  the  North.  Migration 
across  thousands  of  miles  of  desert  country  did  not  tempt 
the  plantation  owner  with  his  slaves.  Consequently,  when  dele 
gates  from  the  new  Californian  immigrants  met  at  Monterey, 
in  September,  1849,  at  the  call  of  the  military  governor,  Riley, 

to  devise  a  government,  they 
drew  up  a  constitution  ex 
cluding  slavery  by  a  unani 
mous  vote.  When  Congress 
met  in  December,  1849, 
therefore,  California  was  no 
longer  waiting  to  be  organ 
ized  as  a  territory,  but  was 
ready  for  admission  to  the 
Union  as  a  state,  and  a  state 
with  a  free  constitution. 

It  was,  therefore,  evident 
that  the  Congress  of  1849- 
1851  would  have  to  deal  in 
earnest  with  the  organization 
of  the  new  territory.  With 
the  example  of  California  before  them,  the  people  of  New  Mexico 
were  already  planning  a  government  for  themselves.  A  bitter 
boundary  quarrel  was  developing  between  New  Mexico  and 
Texas.  Finally,  the  abolitionists,  roused  by  the  acquisition  of 
new  territory  in  the  southwest  suitable  for  slavery,  were  re 
doubling  their  petitions  to  Congress  to  prove  its  control  over 
the  territories  of  the  United  States,  by  abolishing  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  In  spite  of  Taylor's  message  to  the 
assembled  Congress,  advising  them  to  "  abstain  from  the  in 
troduction  of  those  exciting  topics  of  sectional  character  which 


523.  Cali 
fornia  draws 
up  a  «  free  » 
constitution, 
September, 
1849 


The  Discovery  of  Gold  at  Sutler's 
Mill,  California 


524.  The 
crisis  faced 
by  Congress, 
December, 
1849 


358 


Slavery  and  the  West 


have  hitherto  produced  painful  apprehension  in  the  public  mind," 
—  in  plain  words,  not  to  quarrel  about  slavery,  —  the  Congress 
and  the  country  at  large  believed  that  the  acquisition  of  the  new 
Western  lands  had  brought  a  crisis  which  must  now  be  faced. 

THE  OMNIBUS  BILL 


525.  The  3ist 

Congress, 

1849-1851 


Probably  no  other  gathering  of  public  men  in  our  history, 
except  the  convention  which  met  at  Philadelphia  in  1787  to 
frame  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  contained  so  many 
orators  and  political  geniuses  of  the  first  rank  as  the  Senate 
which  assembled  in  December,  1849.  There  met,  for  the  last 
time,  the  great  triumvirate  of  American  statesmen,  Clay,  Web 
ster,  and  Calhoun,  —  all  three  born  during  the  Revolutionary 
War,  and  all  so  identified  with  every  public  question  for  a  gen 
eration  that  to  write  the  biography  of  any  one  of  them  would 
be  to  write  the  history  of  our  country  during  that  period.  With 
them  came  a  number  of  brilliant  men  whose  names  appear  often 
on  these  pages,  Benton,  Cass,  Bell,  Douglas,  Davis,  Seward, 
Chase,  and  Hale,  —  the  last  three  being  the  first  pronounced 
antislavery  delegation  in  the  Senate.  In  the  House,  Democrats 
and  Whigs  were  so  evenly  matched  (112  to  105)  that  the  thir 
teen  Free-Soilers  held  the  balance  of  power.  The  temper  of 
Congress  was  shown  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  session,  when 
in  a  fierce  struggle  for  the  speakership,  a  fiery  proslavery  mem 
ber  from  Georgia,  Robert  Toombs,  declared  amid  hisses  and 
applause  that  if  the  North  sought  to  drive  the  slaveholder  from 
New  Mexico  and  California  —  land  "  purchased  by  the  common 
blood  and  treasure  of  the  nation"  —and  thereby  "to  fix  a 
national  degradation  on  half  the  states  of  the  Confederacy," 
he  was  ready  for  disunion. 

In  this  critical  situation  the  aged  Henry  Clay,  whose  voice 
had  been  raised  for  moderation  and  conciliation  ever  since  the 
1  days  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  thirty  years  before,  again  came 
forward  with  measures  calculated  to  reconcile  the  opposing 
sections  (January  29,  1850).  Clay  proposed  that  (i)  California 


526.  Henry 
Clay  intro 
duces  the 


The  Compromise  of  1850 


359 


should  be  admitted  as  a  free  state  ;  (2)  the  rest  of  the  Mexican 
cession  should  be  divided  by  the  thirty-seventh  parallel  of  latitude 
into  the  territories  of  Utah  on  the  north  and  New  Mexico  on  the 
south,  both  organized  on  the  "  squatter-sovereignty  "  principle 1 ; 
(3)  the  boundaries  of  the  slaveholding  state  of  Texas  should  be 
cut  down  from  379,000  to  264,000  square  miles,  but  in  return 
Texas  should  receive  $10,000,000  from  the  government  to  pay 
her  war  debt  contracted  before  1845  ;  (4)  the  slave  trade  (but 
not  slavery)  should  be  prohibited  in  the  District  of  Columbia ; 
(5)  a  new  fugitive-slave  law  should  be  enacted,  making  the 
recovery  of  runaway  negroes  much  easier  than  under  the  old 
law  of  1793.  This  measure  of  Clay's  was  called  the  "  Omnibus 
Bill,"  on  account  of  the  number  of  provisions  which  it  included.2 

We  can  see  what  a  difficult  task  Clay  had  undertaken  when  527.  conflict, 
we  compare  the  demands  of   the  radical   leaders,  North  and 
South,  on  these  questions.    On  the 


South 


Question  of 

(1)  California 

(2)  New   Mexico 


(3)  Texas 


(4)  District  of 

Columbia 

(5)  Fugitive 

slaves 


The  South  demanded 

organization  as  a  terri 
tory,  admitting  slavery 

legalization  of  slavery  by 
Congress  (at  least  be 
low  36°  30') 

the  same  boundaries  as 
the  Texan  republic 
claimed  in  1836 

no  interference  with  slav 
ery  by  Congress 

a  strict  law  enforced  by 
national  authority,  with 
no  jury  trial  for  negroes 


The  North  demanded 
immediate  admission  as  a 

free  state 
the    application     of    the 

Wilmot  Proviso 

a  reduction  in  the  size  of 
Texas  without  any 
money  compensation 

abolition  of  slavery 

jury  trial  for  every  negro 
claimed  as  a  fugitive 
slave 


1  This  division  of  New  Mexico  was  in  reality  the  extension  of  the  Missouri- 
Compromise  to  the  new  territory.    It  was  expected  that  slavery  would  enter  New 
Mexico,  but  not  the  northern  territory  of  Utah. 

2  Strictly  speaking,  only  the  clauses  referring  to  California,  New  Mexico,  and 
Texas  were  called  the  Omnibus  Bill.   But  the  other  two  propositions  (4  and  5) 
were  so  intimately  connected  with  them,  both  in  time  and  purpose,  that  the  whole 
legislation  may  be  considered  together. 


360  Slavery  and  the  West 

528.  Debates       The  debates  on  the  compromise  measures  called  forth  some 
compromise      of  the  finest  speeches  ever  made  in  the  Senate.    Clay's  fervid 
bil1  plea  for  harmony,  in  introducing  his  bills,  was  enhanced  by  the 

fact  that  the  venerable  statesman,  now  in  his  seventy-third 
year,  had  left  the  quiet  of  his  well-earned  retirement  to  make 
this  supreme  effort  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  whose 
welfare  and  glory  had  been  his  chief  pride  since  his  boyhood's 
recollection  of  the  inauguration  of  his  great  Virginia  neighbor, 
George  Washington. 

529.  John  c.       Calhoun  was  to  speak  on  the  fourth  of  March.    But  he  was 
speech^March  to°  enfeebled  by  the  ravages  of  consumption  to  deliver  his  care- 
4,  1850  fu}iy  prepared  speech.    He  was  borne  to  his  place  in  the  Senate 

chamber,  where  he  sat,  alive  only  in  the  great  deep  eyes  which 
still  flashed  beneath  his  heavy  brows,  while  his  colleague,  Senator 
Mason,  read  his  speech.  It  was  a  message  of  despair.  The  en 
croachments  of  the  North  on  the  constitutional  rights  of  the 
slaveholders  had  already  proceeded  so  far,  he  said,  that  the 
great  Kentuckian's  plan  of  compromise  was  futile.  The  North 
was  the  aggressor.  Her  institutions  were  not  attacked,  her 
property  was  not  threatened,  her  rights  were  not  invaded.  She 
must  cease  all  agitation  against  slavery,  return  the  fugitive 
slaves  willingly,  and  restore  to  the  South  her  equal  rights  in  all 
parts  of  the  Union  and  all  acquired  territory.  Otherwise,  the 
cords  which  had  bound  the  states  together  for  two  generations 
would  every  one  be  broken,  and  our  Republic  would  be  dis 
solved  into  warring  sections.  It  was  Calhoun's  last  word. 
Before  the  month  closed,  he  had  passed  beyond  all  earthly  strife. 

530.  web-  Daniel  Webster  spoke  on  the  seventh  of  March.    Webster 
seventh-of-      nad  put  himself  squarely  on  record  against  the  extension  of 
March  speech  siaverv  jnto  new  territory.    Besides  his  New  York  speech  of 

1837,  already  quoted  (p.  337),  he  had  said  in  the  Oregon  de 
bates  that  his  objections  to  slavery  were  "  irrespective  of  lines 
and  latitudes,  taking  in  the  whole  country  and  the  whole  ques 
tion."  The  antislavery  men  of  the  North,  therefore,  to  many  of 
whom  Webster  was  almost  an  idol,  were  bitterly  disappointed 


The  Compromise  of  1830  361 

when  he  spoke  in  favor  of  Clay's  compromise  measures.  His 
love  of  the  Union,  and  his  desire  to  see  peace  reestablished  be 
tween  the  two  sections,  proved  stronger  than  his  hatred  of 
slavery.  He  maintained  that  there  was  no  danger  that  New 
Mexico  would  become  slave  territory,  because  the  physical 
geography  of  the  region  forever  excluded  the  cotton  planter 
from  its  deserts  and  high  plateaus.  "  I  would  not  take  pains," 
he  said,  "  uselessly  to  reaffirm  an  ordinance  of  nature  or  to 
reenact  the  will  of  God.  I  would  put  in  no  Wilmot  Proviso  for 
the  mere  purpose  of  a  taunt  or  a  reproach."  He  spoke  in  be 
half  of  the  fugitive-slave  law,  because  such  a  law  had  always 
been  on  the  statute  books  of  the  country.  He  denounced  the 
abolitionists  as  men  who  had  no  right  to  set  up  their  conscience 
in  opposition  to  the  law.  In  a  fine  peroration  he  implored  his 
countrymen  of  the  South  to  dismiss  the  awful  thought  of  seces 
sion  and  cherish  the  Union  forever.  The  Free-Soilers  said  that 
the  great  man's  ambition  to  be  the  next  president  tempted  him 
to  forsake  his  principles  in  the  seventh-of-March  speech.  But 
his  sincere,  though  mistaken,  belief  that  the  Union  could  be 
saved  by  compromise  is  sufficient  to  account  for  his  support  of 
Clay's  measures,  without  attributing  base  motives  to  him. 

Webster  was  answered  a  few  days  later  by  William  H.  Seward,  531.  seward 
the  new  Whig  senator   from  New  York.     Seward  raised  the  S^er  law6 


w 
question  from  the  political  to  the  moral  level.    He  thought  the  March 

compromise  vicious  because  it  surrendered  principles.  The  law 
might  stand  on  the  statute  books,  but  the  conscience  of  the 
people  would  condemn  it  and  repudiate  it.  The  Constitution 
might  tolerate  slavery,  but  there  was  "  a  higher  law  than  the 
Constitution,"  namely  the  moral  law.  "  The  simple,  bold, 
and  even  awful  question  which  presents  itself  to  us,"  he  said, 
"  is  this  :  Shall  we,  who  are  founding  institutions  social  and 
political  for  countless  millions  —  shall  we  who  are  free  to 
choose  the  wise  and  just  and  to  reject  the  erroneous  and  injuri 
ous  —  shall  we  establish  human  bondage  or  permit  it  in  our 
sufferance  to  be  established?  Sir,  our  forefathers  would  not 


362  Slavery  and  the  West 

have  hesitated  one  hour !  They  found  slavery  existing  here, 
and  they  left  it  only  because  they  could  not  remove  it.  But 
there  is  no  state,  free  or  slave,  which,  if  it  had  had  the  alterna 
tive  as  we  now  have,  would  have  founded  slavery."  Seward's 
appeal  to  the  "  higher  law  "  was  in  line  with  the  abolitionists' 
doctrine  that  the  moral  evil  of  slavery  far  outweighed  all  polit 
ical,  legal,  or  economic  considerations.  The  phrase  "  the  higher 
law  "  spread  through  the  North,  greatly  strengthening  the  anti- 
slavery  sentiment. 

532.  chase's       Another  powerful  speech  against  the  compromise  was  de- 
££**"*  Hvered  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  March  by  Salmon  P.  Chase  of 

Ohio,  like  Seward  newly  elected  to  the  Senate.  Chase  was  a 
man  of  splendid  stature,  a  powerful  orator,  and  a  wise  and 
courageous  statesman.  He  had  been  a  Democrat,  but  Birney's 
abolitionist  paper  in  his  home  city  of  Cincinnati,  together  with 
his  own  observation  of  the  contrast  between  the  civilization  on 
the  right  bank  and  that  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Ohio,  had  con 
verted  him  to  the  Free-Soil  party.  He  denounced  the  com 
promise  as  a  weak  surrender  to  the  slaveholders'  interests. 
In  answer  to  Calhoun  he  declared  that  not  the  North  but  the 
South  had  been  the  aggressor  ever  since  the  days  when  threats 
and  intimidation  had  forced  upon  the  framers  of  the  Constitu 
tion  concessions  to  slavery.  He  derided  the  Southerners' 
talk  of  secession  as  "  stale." 

533.  The  The  great  debate  on  the  compromise  seemed  no  nearer  its  end 
passes^under  in  Juty  tnan  ^  nac^  been  in  January.    It  was  known  that  President 

'iS  Taylor  (who  was  much  under  the  influence  of  Seward)  would 
veto  any  measure  favorable  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  and  the 
Clay-Webster  forces  could  not  hope  for  the  necessary  two-thirds 
majority  in  Congress  to  pass  the  bill  over  Taylor's  veto.  But 
the  whole  aspect  of  the  question  changed  when  Taylor  died, 
after  a  four  days'  illness,  July  9,  1850.  Vice  President  Fillmore, 
who  succeeded  him,  was  in  favor  of  the  compromise,  and  with 
the  help  of  the  administration  the  bills  were  passed  through 
the  Senate  and  the  House  by  fair  majorities,  and  signed  by 


The  Compromise  of 


363 


President  Fillmore  in  August  and  September.  The  eventful 
nine  months'  session  of  Congress  closed  in  October. 

The   Compromise  Measures  of  1850  were  as  decidedly  in  534.  Analysis 
favor  of  the  South  as  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820  had  promiseolr 

been  in  favor  of  the  North.    California  was  admitted  as  a  free  Measures  of 

1850 

state,  to  be  sure ;  *  but  the  advantage  to  the  antislavery  inter 
ests  ended  there.  The  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  in  the  tiny 
District  of  Columbia  relieved  antislavery  congressmen  of  the 


*,     o. 


1  K     LJL iim^iiiim  | 

>  1 1         ^ililiW  •  -"•••' •"(-•••' 

VM>*>'.- -'  rt-^^^^-feA^-^i'i;^^:-:-^^^- 


Free  States 
Free  Territoi 
Slave  States 


.FRONTIER  LINE 


The  Status  of  Slavery  by  the  Compromise  of  1850 

pain  of  seeing  shackled  gangs  of  slaves  driven  to  the  boats  on 
the  Potomac,  under  the  very  shadow  of  the  dome  of  the  Capitol, 
to  be  sold  to  the  cotton  and  rice  plantations  of  the  lower  South  ; 
but  it  had  no  practical  effect  on  the  domestic  slave  trade,  which 
•was  amply  supplied  by  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Kentucky. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  concessions  to  the  South  were  gen-  535.  conces- 
erous.    Both  the  extension  of  the  Missouri-Compromise  line  to 
the  Pacific  and  the  agitation  for  the  enactment  of  the  Wilmot 


the 


1  Since  there  were  fifteen  free  and  fifteen  slave  states  at  the  beginning  of 
1850,  the  admission  of  California  gave  the  Senate  a  majority  for  the  North. 
After  1850  no  new  slave  states  were  admitted. 


364 


Slavery  and  the  West 


Proviso  were  given  up.  The  whole  of  the  Mexican  cession  east 
of  California  was  opened  to  slavery.  The  reduction  of  the 
boundaries  of  Texas  was  no  disadvantage  to  the  slave  cause, 
since  slavery  was  not  forbidden  in  the  territory  transferred  from 
Texas  to  New  Mexico,  while  the  payment  of  $10,000,000  to 
Texas  set  that  state  on  the  path  to  prosperity,  which  made  it 
a  powerful  aid  to  the  Confederate  cause  in  the  great  struggle 
of  the  Civil  War  ten  years  later. 

536.  The  new  Finally,  the  new  fugitive-slave  law  brought  the  whole  ma- 
siave  law  chinery  of  the  United  States  into  play,  if  necessary,  to  recover  a 
runaway  negro.  The  fugitive  was  not  allowed  a  trial,  either  in 
the  state  where  he  was  seized  or  in  the  state  from  which  he  had 
fled.  The  magistrate's  fee  was  twice  as  large  when  he  handed 
the  negro  over  to  the  claimant  as  when  he  declared  the  negro 
free.  The  alleged  fugitive  was  not  allowed  to  testify  in  his  own 
behalf.  The  United  States  marshals  were  heavily  fined  if  they 
let  the  reclaimed  fugitive  escape.  At  the  call  of  the  marshals 
all  good  citizens  of  any  state  must  aid  in  the  seizure  of  the 
runaway  negro,  and  persons  willfully  preventing  his  arrest  or 
helping  his  escape  were  subject  to  a  fine  of  $1000,  or  six 
months'  imprisonment,  in  addition  to  damages  to  the  owner,  up 
to  $1000,  for  the  value  of  the  slave.  Thus,  this  new  law 
commanded  the  recognition  of  slavery  and  the  protection  of 
slave  property  in  every  part  of  the  United  States,  and  made 
every  man  and  woman  of  a  free  state  a  partner  in  the  gruesome 
business  of  restoring  to  a  revengeful  master  the  fugitive  who 
had  followed  the  Northern  Star  to  the  "  land  of  freedom." 


537.  The 
Compromise 
of  1850 

thought  to  be 
a  final  adjust 
ment  of  the 
slavery  ques 
tion 


A  FOUR  YEARS'  TRUCE 

The  Compromise  Measures  of  1850  were  regarded  by  the 
vast  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  as  a  final 
settlement  of  the  sectional  disputes  over  slavery.  The  status  of 
slavery  was  now  fixed  in  every  square  mile  of  our  domain  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  Henry  Clay  was  hailed  as  "  the  great 
Pacificator,"  and  the  foremost  statesmen  of  both  parties  devoted 


The  Compromise  0/1850  365 

their  best  talents  to  proving  that  the  Compromise  of  1850 
was  the  just  and  sole  basis  on  which  the  Union  could  be  pre 
served.  The  agitation  over  slavery  in  the  new  western  territory 
had  caused  much  talk  of  disunion  in  the  South.  A  convention 
was  assembled  at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  in  the  early  summer  of 
1850,  to  decide  on  what  terms  the  cotton  states  would  still 
remain  in  the  Union.  But  the  passage  of  the  Compromise 
Measures  quieted  the  disunion  movement.  The  Unionists  were 
overwhelmingly  triumphant  in  the  elections  of  1851  in  every 
Southern  state  but  South  Carolina. 

In  the  Northern  states  it  was  harder  to  make  the  people  538.  North- 
accept  the  Compromise  of  1850.  In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  such  against  the 
persuasive  advocates  as  Webster  and  Choate  in  the  East  and 
Douglas  and  Cass  in  the  West,  the  pulpit,  press,  and  platform 
would  not  cease  in  their  condemnation  of  the  new  fugitive-slave 
law.  On  the  other  points  of  the  compromise  the  antislavery  senti 
ment  of  the  North  would  have  yielded,  in  view  of  Webster's 
assurance  that  the  soil  and  climate  of  New  Mexico  would  never 
attract  the  slaveholder.  But  to  have  every  man  and  woman  in 
the  free-soil  states  enlisted  as  a  helper  in  the  business  of  return 
ing  the  fugitive  slave  to  his  owner  was  more  than  the  North 
could  bear.  A  public  meeting  in  Indiana  declared  its  "  absolute 
refusal  to  obey  the  inhuman  and  diabolical  provisions  "  of  the 
fugitive-slave  law,  and  the  declaration  was  indorsed  by  hun 
dreds  of  mass  meetings  from  Boston  to  Chicago. 

For  several  years  there  had  been  in  operation  in  New  York,  539.  The 
Pennsylvania,  and  all  along  the  northern  bank  of  the  Ohio 
River  a  system  called  the  "  underground  railroad,"  whose  ob 
ject  was  to  give  food,  shelter,  and  pecuniary  aid  to  the  negro 
escaping  across  the  line  into  the  free  states.  Prominent  citizens 
were  engaged  in  this  work,  offering  their  barns  and  sheds,  and 
even  their  houses,  as  "  stations  "  on  the  "  underground."  The 
fugitive  was  passed  on  from  station  to  station  with  remark 
able  secrecy  and  dispatch  until  he  reached  the  shores  of  Lake 
Erie  and  took  ship  for  Canada.  The  actual  number  of  slaves 


366 


Slavery  and  the  West 


escaping  by  the  "  underground  "  was  comparatively  small ;  but 
so  long  as  they  helped  even  a  few  slaves  over  the  border,  the 
abolitionists  felt  that  they  were  doing  something  to  hamper  and 
defeat  the  horrible  system  of  bondage.  The  people  of  the  free 
states  felt  fairly  secure  in  breaking  the  old  fugitive-slave  law  of 
1793,  because  that  law  depended  on  the  state  authorities  for  its 
execution,  and  in  a  notable  case  (Prigg  vs.  Pennsylvania),  in 


540.  The 
Democratic 
victory  of 
1852 


1 


Chief  Routes  of  the  Underground  Railroad 

1842,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  had  decided  that 
the  Constitution  did  not  compel  the  officers  of  a  state  to  assist 
in  restoring  fugitive  slaves. 

The  new  law  of  1850,  however,  closed  every  station  on  the 
"  underground,"  and  made  the  soil  of  Ohio  and  Indiana  as  danger 
ous  for  the  escaping  negro  as  the  canebrakes  of  Louisiana  or 
the  swamps  of  Virginia.  But  after  a  few  instances  of  resistance 
and  violence,  the  fugitive-slave  law  was  generally  enforced 
throughout  the  North;  and  by  the  end  of  the  year  1851  the 
success  of  the  Compromise  Measures  seemed  assured. 

The  presidential  campaign  of  the  next  year  (1852)  contrib 
uted  to  the  strength  of  the  Compromise  of  1850.  There  were 
no  important  issues  before  the  people.  The  great  Whig  leader, 


The  Compromise  of  1850  367 

Henry  Clay,  died  in  June,  carrying  his  party  to  the  grave  with 
him,  as  he  had  brought  it  into  existence  twenty  years  before.1 
The  Whigs  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  win  the  presidency  by 
the  nomination  of  their  third  military  candidate,  General  Win- 
field  Scott,  the  "  hero  of  Lundys  Lane  and  Chapultepec  "  ;  but 
Scott  carried  only  four  of  the  thirty-one  states  of  the  Union. 
The  Democrats,  after  a  long  contest  between  Douglas,  Marcy, 
Cass,  and  Buchanan  for  the  nomination,  had  been  obliged  to 
unite  on  a  "  dark  horse."  On  the  forty-ninth  ballot  their  con 
vention  nominated  General  Franklin  Pierce  of  New  Hampshire, 
a  young  man  of  fine  presence  and  winning  personality,  who  had 
a  creditable  but  not  brilliant  record  as  a  legislator  and  soldier. 
Pierce's  sweeping  victory  of  254  electoral  votes  to  32  for  Scott 
was  a  vote  of  confidence  in  the  fidelity  of  the  Democratic  party 
to  the  Compromise  of  1850.  Pierce  announced  in  his  inaugural 
address  that  a  "  sense  of  repose  and  security  had  been  restored 
throughout  the  country,"  and  expressed  the  "  fervent  hope  that  no 
sectional  or  fanatical  excitement  might  again  threaten  the  dura 
bility  of  our  institutions  or  obscure  the  light  of  our  prosperity." 

When   Pierce  mentioned  "  the  light  of  our  prosperity,"  he  541.  The 


struck  the  real  note  of  the  truce  of  1850-1854.    It  was  a  busi-  0 

ness  man's  peace.  The  commercial  and  industrial  classes  were 
tired  of  the  agitation  over  slavery.  They  were  glad  to  have  Con 
gress  stop  discussing  the  Missouri  Compromise  and  the  Wilmot 
Proviso,  and  attend  to  the  business  interests  of  the  country. 
An  era  of  great  prosperity  was  opening.  The  discovery  of 
immense  deposits  of  gold  and  silver  in  California  ;  the  extension 
of  the  wheat  fields  into  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota  ;  the 
great  increase  in  the  products  of  the  Northern  mills  and  facto 
ries  ;  and  the  growing  fleet  of  our  merchant  marine,  were  all 
signs  of  rapidly  increasing  wealth.  The  railroad  mileage  of  the 
country  up  to  the  year  1848  was  less  than  6000,  but  during 

1  It  was  in  1832  that  Clay,  by  forcing  through  Congress  the  bill  for  the  re- 
charter  of  the  National  Bank,  set  up  the  standard  around  which  the  opponents 
of  President  Jackson  rallied  to  form  the  Whig  party. 


Canals  and  Railroads  operated  in  1850 
368 


The  Compromise  of  1850  369 

the  next  ten  years  over  16,500  miles  of  new  track  were  laid. 
Between  1850  and  1855  the  important  railroads  of  the  Atlantic 
coast  (the  New  York  Central,  the  Erie,  the  Pennsylvania,  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio)  were  all  connected  with  the  Great  Lakes 
or  the  Ohio  River.1  Thus  the  immense  northern  basin  of  the 
Mississippi,  which,  as  part  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  had  been 
connected  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  through  the  highway  of 
the  great  river,  now  began  to  be  joined  with  the  Eastern  states 
and  to  send  its  growing  trade  through  the  Great  Lakes  and 
over  the  Atlantic-seaboard  railroads. 

The  wealth  of  the  South  seemed  even  more  firm  in  its  foun-  542.  The 
dations  and  more  rapid  in  its  increase.  An  apparently  limitless  «eRtag  cot- 
demand  for  cotton  by  the  mills  of  America  and  Europe  en-  e0nthin  the 
couraged  the  cultivation  of  that  staple  to  the  neglect  of  every 
other  form  of  industry.  By  1850  the  value  of  the  cotton  crop 
was  over  $100,000,000  annually,  while  the  rice  and  sugar  crops 
combined  yielded  less  than  $16,000,000.  In  the  same  year,  of 
the  total  of  $137,000,000  of  exports  from  the  United  States, 
$72,000,000  (or  53  per  cent)  was  in  cotton,  as  against 
$26,000,000  (or  19  per  cent)  in  grain  and  provisions.  Such  a 
trade  naturally  led  the  Southerners  to  believe  that  slavery  was 
the  basis  of  the  prosperity  of  the  country.  "  Cotton  is  king ! " 
they  said.  "  In  the  3,000,000  bags  of  cotton  that  slave  labor 
annually  throws  upon  the  world,  we  are  doing  more  to  advance 
civilization  than  all  the  canting  philanthropists  of  New  and  Old 
England  will  do  in  a  century."2 

1  An  interesting  result  of  this  new  connection  was  shown  in  the  immense 
growth  of  the  Lake  cities,  Chicago,  Buffalo,  Detroit,  Cleveland,  and  Milwaukee, 
in  the  decade  1850-1860. 

2  The  Southern  writers  were  guilty  of  two  serious  errors  in  their  economics : 
first,  in  mistaking  the  great  wealth  of  a  few  planters  for  general  prosperity; 
secondly,  in  thinking  that  free  negro  labor  was  impossible.   There  were  about 
75.000  large  planters  in  the  South  in  1850,  out  of  a  population  of  about  5,000,000 
whites.  Their  prosperity  was  that  of  "  a  dominant  minority,"  and  was  not  diffused 
through  all  classes  as  in  the  North.    Again,  while  the  value  of  the  cotton  crop 
in  1850  with  slave  labor  was  $105,000,000,  in  1880  under  free  negro  labor  it  was 
$275,000,000,  and  in  1910  over  $700,000,000.  Slave  labor  produced  2,200,000  bales 
of  cotton  in  1850  ;  free  labor  produced  nearly  15,000,000  bales  in  1910. 


3/O  Slavery  and  the  West 

543.  ECO-  The  immense  domestic  and  foreign  trade  stimulated  by  our 
Xs^eforV     prosperity  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  demanded 
congress         ^g  attention  of  Congress.    Western  railroads  (like  the  canals 

and  turnpikes  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  earlier)  were  clamoring 
for  national  aid.  Our  rivers  needed  deepening  and  our  harbors 
dredging.  Our  coasts  were  inadequately  charted  and  lighted. 
The  tariff  needed  revision. 

544.  Foreign       Foreign  questions  of  delicacy  and  importance  also  arose  in 

tne  Peri°d  of  the  slavery  debates  of  the  mid-century.    The  year 


mann  Letter,    Ig4s  was  marked  by  revolution  in  almost  all  the  countries  of 
1850  J 

western  Europe.    The  people  were  striving  for  more  liberal 

constitutions  or  the  overthrow  of  oppressive  monarchies. 
Hungary,  under  the  leadership  of  the  patriot  Kossuth,  made  a 
valiant  effort  to  throw  off  the  oppressive  yoke  of  Austria  and 
establish  an  independent  republic.  But  the  revolt  was  crushed 
by  the  help  of  Russian  arms.1  Our  government  showed  its 
sympathy  with  Hungary  by  sending  an  agent  in  1849  to  recog 
nize  the  new  republic  as  soon  as  there  seemed  a  chance  of 
its  success.  When  Hiilsemann,  the  Austrian  representative  at 
Washington,  protested  against  this  as  an  "  unfriendly  act," 
Daniel  Webster  (who  became  Fillmore's  Secretary  of  State  in 
1850)  replied  in  a  famous  letter,  in  which,  so  far  from  apolo 
gizing  to  Austria,  he  boasted  of  the  power,  wealth,  and  happi 
ness  of  our  nation  under  its  democratic  institutions,  and 
maintained  "  the  right  of  the  American  people  to  sympathize 
with  the  efforts  of  any  nation  to  acquire  liberty." 

545.  KOS-  The  next  year   Kossuth  came  to  America  as  the  nation's 

to  America       guest.     His  speeches  roused  intense  enthusiasm  for  the  Hun- 

1852  garian  cause,  but  our  political  leaders  were  careful  to  let  him 

know  that  he  could  not  expect  more  from  our  government  than 

expressions  of  sympathy.     He  left  in  the   summer  of   1852, 

after  a  six  months'  visit,  flattered  by  the  lavishness  with  which 

the  nation  had  entertained  him,  but  disappointed  with  the  nig 

gardly  contributions  which  the  people  had  made  to  his  cause. 

1  See  Robinson  and  Beard,  Development  of  Modern  Europe,  Vol.  1  1,  pp.  72-84. 


The  Compromise  of  1850  371 

It  seemed  as  though  no  decade  of  our  history  could  pass  546.  British 
without  some  new  cause  for  ill  feeling  toward  Great  Britain. 
To  the  perpetual  quarrel  over  the  rights  of  our  fishermen  off  the  °nal 


Canadian  coast,  and  the  disputes  over  our  northern  boundaries,  of  Panama 
there  was  added  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  an 
important  controversy  in  Central  America.  We  had  looked 
forward  for  years  to  building  a  canal  cutting  the  isthmus  which 
connects  the  two  great  continents  of  the  Western  Hemisphere, 
and  had  even  made  a  treaty  in  1846  with  the  Spanish-  American 
republic  of  New  Granada  (now  Colombia),  in  which  we  agreed 
to  keep  open  to  all  nations,  on  the  same  terms,  any  canal  or 
railroad  built  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  The  discovery 
of  gold  in  California  shortly  afterwards  (1848)  set  American 
capitalists,  headed  by  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  actively  to  planning 
transportation  routes  across  the  Isthmus.  Here  they  came  into 
collision  with  the  British,  who  had  a  colony  in  Central  America, 
and  were  attempting  to  extend  their  "  protectorate  "  over  miles 
of  the  coast.  A  British  warship  even  bombarded  the  port  which 
the  American  transportation  company  was  making  its  terminus 
on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the  Isthmus. 

After  long  negotiations  Clayton,  our  Secretary  of  State  under  547.  The 
President  Taylor,  came  to  an  agreement  with  the  British 
minister,  Sir  Henry  Lytton  Bulwer,  in  1850.  The  Clayton-  l85° 
Bulwer  Treaty,  which  remained  in  force  until  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  provided  that  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  should  jointly  guarantee  the  neutrality  of  any  canal 
built  across  the  Isthmus.  Each  government  pledged  itself  not 
to  seek  exclusive  control  over  the  canal,  never  to  erect  any 
fortifications  upon  it,  or  to  acquire  any  colonies  in  Central 
America.  Each  promised  that  it  would  extend  its  protection  to 
any  company  that  should  undertake  the  work  of  building  a 
canal,  and  would  use  its  influence  with  the  governments  of 
Central  America  to  give  their  aid  and  consent  to  such  a 
project.  We  shall  trace  in  a  later  chapter  the  fortunes  of  the 
Clayton-  Bulwer  Treaty. 


372  Slavery  and  the  West 

548.  our  in-        The  most   critical   incident  in    our  mid-century  diplomacy, 
Cuba*  Isig-      however,  concerned  Cuba.    That  rich  island  possession  of  Spain, 
l8s°  lying  just   off   our   coast,   had   been   regarded    with    especial 

interest  by  our  statesmen  ever  since  the  transfer  of  Florida  to 
the  United  States  in  1819.  As  the  antislavery  sentiment  of  the 
North  developed,  restricting  the  area  of  slavery  in  the  trans- 
Mississippi  region  (by  the  Missouri  Compromise),  and  seeking 
to  make  the  exclusion  of  slavery  the  condition  of  annexing 
more  western  territory  (by  the  Wilmot  Proviso),  Cuba  became 
increasingly  desirable  in  the  eyes  of  the  Southerners.  The 
magnificent  island,  "  the  Pearl  of  the  Antilles,"  would  make 
three  populous  slave  states.  The  ever-threatening  danger  that 
Cuba  might  revolt  from  Spain  and  set  up  a  black  republic 
almost  within  sight  of  the  Florida  coast  would  be  forever 
removed  by  its  annexation  to  the  United  States. 

549.  At-  Spain  steadily  refused  all  our  offers  for  Cuba,  even  when 
or°se?ze  they  rose  to  the  generous  sum  of  $120,000,000,  or  eight  times 


the  price  paid  for  the  great  Louisiana  territory.  The  ministry 
at  Madrid  replied  to  President  Polk  in  1848  that  they  "had 
rather  see  Cuba  sunk  in  the  ocean  than  transferred  to  any 
power."  Still,  Spanish  government  was  oppressive  in  Cuba,  and 
the  island  was  in  a  chronic  state  of  revolt.  The  disturbed  con 
dition  of  Cuba  and  the  intense  desire  of  the  Gulf  States  to 
annex  the  island  led  to  frequent  filibustering  expeditions,  in 
spite  of  prohibitions  from  Washington.  In  1851  about  fifty 
American  citizens,  some  of  them  young  men  belonging  to  the 
best  families  of  New  Orleans,  joined  a  noted  filibusterer, 
named  Lopez,  in  a  desperate  attempt  to  seize  Cuba.  When  the 
men  were  captured  on  the  Cuban  coast  and  promptly  shot,  a 
mob  at  New  Orleans  sacked  the  Spanish  consulate,  tore  down 
the  ensign  of  Castile,  and  defaced  the  portrait  of  Queen 
Isabella.  Daniel  Webster  apologized  for  this  insult  to  Spain,  but 
a  little  later  Webster's  successor  in  the  State  Department,  William 
L.  Marcy,  was  asking  the  ministry  at  Madrid  to  apologize  to 
the  United  States  for  the  unjust  seizure  and  condemnation 


The  Compromise  0/1850  373 

of  the  American  steamer  Black  Warrior  by  the  authorities  at 
Havana.  Relations  between  the  United  States  and  Spain  were 
severely  strained. 

Meanwhile,  Pierce  had  succeeded  Fillmore,  and  the  new  550.  The 
President,  friendly  to  the  South,  was  in  favor  of  the  annexation  fesst(£  ^54 
of  Cuba  by  any  fair  means.  He  sent  as  minister  to  Spain 
Pierre  Soule"  of  Louisiana,  the  most  ardent  annexationist  in  the 
country.  Marcy  instructed  Soule  to  consult  with  Mason,  our 
minister  to  France,  and  Buchanan,  our  minister  to  England,  on 
the  best  policy  for  the  United  States  to  assume  toward  Cuba 
after  the  seizure  of  the  Black  Warrior.  The  three  ministers 
met  atOstend  (in  Belgium)  in  the  late  summer  of  1854,  and, 
under  the  dictation  of  the  imperious  Soule,  issued  the  famous 
Ostend  Manifesto,  which  declared  that  the  possession  of  Cuba 
was  necessary  to  the  peace  of  the  United  States,  and  that 
Spain  ought  to  accept  the  overgenerous  price  we  offered  for 
it;  but  if,  "actuated  by  stubborn  pride  and  a  false  sense  of 
honor,"  Spain  should  refuse  to  sell  Cuba,  then  we  were  "  justi 
fied  by  every  law,  human  and  divine,"  in  wresting  the  island 
from  her  by  force. 

There  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  law,  human  or  divine,  that  551.  war 
could  justify  the  language  of  the  Ostend  Manifesto  or  the  deed 
of  pure  robbery  which  it  proposed.1  Still,  the  desire  for  Cuba 
was  keen,  and  it  is  impossible  to  say  to  what  lengths  the  ad 
ministration,  under  Southern  influence,  would  have  gone  to 
secure  the  island,  had  not  another  great  controversy  arisen  in 
the  year  1854,  which  absorbed  the  attention  of  Congress  and 
aroused  such  indignation  in  the  North  as  had  not  been  seen 
since  the  days  of  the  Stamp  Act.  The  cautious  Marcy  dis 
owned  the  Ostend  Manifesto,  and  a  few  months  later  accepted 
Spain's  tardy  apology  for  the  Black  Warrior  affair.  It  was 
reserved  for  a  far  greater  disaster  to  another  American  vessel 

1  The  proceeding  was  all  the  more  shameful  because  France  and  England, 
which  had  been  seeking  to  guarantee  Spain's  possession  of  Cuba,  were  both  at 
the  moment  (1854)  engaged  in  the  Crimean  War  in  the  East. 


374  Slavery  and  the  West 

forty-four  years  later  —  the  destruction  of  the  Maine  in  Havana 
harbor  —  to  precipitate  the  war  which  cost  Spain  "  the  Pearl 
of  the  Antilles." 

REFERENCES 

The  New  Territory:  J.  B.  MAcM  ASTER,  History  of  the  People  of  the 
United  States,  Vol.  VII,  chap.  Ixxxiii ;  H.  VON  HOLST,  Constitutional 
History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  Ill,  chaps,  xiii,  xiv ;  A.  B.  HART, 
American  History  told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  15-18  ;  Salmon 
P.  Chase,  chap,  v ;  G.  P.  GARRISON,  Westward  Extension  (American 
Nation  Series),  chaps,  xvi,  xvii,  xix ;  EDWARD  STANWOOD,  History  of 
the  Presidency,  chap,  xviii ;  NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Abraham  Lincoln,  a 
History,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  xv-xviii;  T.  C.  SMITH,  The  Liberty  and  Free- Soil 
Parties  in  the  Northwest  (Harvard  Historical  Studies,  Vol.  VI) ;  J.  R. 
LOWELL,  The  Biglow  Papers  (First  Series). 

The  Omnibus  Bill :  HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  19-22  ;  GARRISON,  chap,  xx; 
VON  HOLST,  Vol.  Ill,  chaps,  xv,  xvi;  WILLIAM  MACDONALD,  Select 
Documents  of  United  States  History,  1776-1861,  Nos.  78-83;  G.  T. 
CURTIS,  Life  of  Daniel  Webster,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xxxvi,  xxxvii;  J.  F. 
RHODES,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850,  Vol. 
I,  chap,  ii;  CARL  SCHURZ,  Henry  Clay,  Vol.  II,  chap,  xxvi;  HORACE 
GREELEY,  The  American  Conflict,  Vol.  I,  chap,  xv ;  HENRY  WILSON, 
Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xxi— xxiv ;  JEFFERSON 
DAVIS,  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Government,  Vol.  I,  chaps, 
ii,  iii. 

A  Four  Years'  Truce:  T.  C.  SMITH,  Parties  and  Slavery  (Am. 
Nation),  chaps,  i-vi ;  STANWOOD,  chap,  xix;  RHODES,  Vol.  I,  chap, 
iii;  MACDONALD,  No.  77;  J.  W.  BURGESS,  The  Middle  Period,  chap, 
xviii;  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  in;  A.  T.  HADLEY,  Railroad  Trans 
portation,  its  History  and  its  Laws,  chaps,  i,  ii ;  D.  R.  DEWEY,  Finan 
cial  History  of  the  United  States,  chaps,  x,  xi ;  GARRISON,  chap,  xviii ; 
I.  D.  TRAVIS,  The  History  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty  (Michigan 
Political  Science  Publications,  Vol.  II,  No.  8) ;  J.  H.  LATANE,  The 
Diplomacy  of  the  United  States  in  Regard  to  Cuba  (American  Historical 
Association  Report,  1897,  pp.  217-277);  JAMES  SCHOULER,  History  of 
the  United  States,  Vol.  V,  chaps,  xx,  xxi. 


The  Compromise  of  1850  375 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  John  C.  Fr&nont's  Explorations  :  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  45  ;  R.  G. 
THWAITES,  Rocky  Mountain  Exploration,  pp.  228-243 ;  J.  C.  FREMONT, 
Report  of  Exploring  Expedition  to    the  Rocky  Mountains   in  the  Year 
1842,  and  to    Oregon  and  North   California    in.   the    Years   1843-1844; 
JESSIE    B.  FREMONT,    Souvenirs  of  my   Time,  pp.    189-209;    Century 
Magazine,  Vol.  XIX,  pp.  759-780  (with  interesting  illustrations). 

2.  Daniel  Webster  and  the  Slavery  Question  :  J.  B.  MACMASTER,  Life 
of  Webster,   pp.    241-254,    303-324;    RHODES,   Vol.    I,    pp.    137-161; 
ALEXANDER  JOHNSTON,  American  Orations,  Vol.  II,  pp.  161-201  ;  H.  C. 
LODGE,  Daniel  Webster,  pp.  301-332 ;  HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  20,  21 ; 
J.  G.  WHITTIER,  Ichabod ;  W.  C.  WILKINSON,  Daniel  Webster  and  the 
Compromise  of  1850  (Scribner's,  Vol.  XII,  pp.  411-425). 

3.  The  Underground  Railway:  HART,  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  172,  183;  Vol. 
IV,  Nos.  29-32;  W.  H.  SIEBERT,  The  Underground  Rail-way,  pp.  18-76; 
B.  T.  WASHINGTON,  The  Story  of  the  Negro,  Vol.  I,  pp.  215-250;  MAC- 
MASTER,  Vol.  VII,  pp.   240-257  ;  A.  B.   HART,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  pp. 
28-53  5  ALEXANDER  JOHNSTON  (ed.  J.  A.  Woodburn),  American  Political 
History,  1763-1876,  Vol.  II,  pp.  127-140. 

4.  Gold  and  Politics  in  California,   1849-1850:  JOSIAH   ROYCE,   Cali 
fornia,  pp.  220-246,  278-356;  E.  E.   SPARKS,    The  Expansion  of  the 
American  People,  pp.  336-350  ;  RHODES,  Vol.  I,  pp.  111-116;  SCHOULER, 
Vol.  V,   pp.    130-146;  J.   S.   HITTELL,   The  Discovery  of  Gold  in   Cali 
fornia  (Century  Magazine,  Vol.  XIX,  pp.  525-536) ;  MACMASTER,  Vol. 
VII,  pp.  585-614;  BAYARD  TAYLOR,  El  Dorado. 

5.  Mid-Century  Plans  for  a  Canal  across  the  Isthmus :  MACMASTER, 
Vol.  VII,  pp.   552-577 ;  J.   H.   LATANE,  Diplomatic  Relations  of  the 
United  States  and  Spanish  America,   pp.    176-195;    T.  J.  LAWRENCE, 
Disputed  Questions  in  Modern  International  Law,  pp.  89—142  ;  W.  F. 
JOHNSON,   Four  Centuries  of  the  Panama    Canal,  pp.   51-77  ;  HENRY 
HUBERICH,  The  Trans-Isthmian  Canal,  pp.  6-15. 


PART  VI.    THE  CRISIS  OF 
DISUNION 


PART  VI.    THE  CRISIS  OF 
DISUNION 

CHAPTER  XIV 

APPROACHING  THE  CRISIS 

THE  REPEAL  OF  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE  AND  THE 
FORMATION  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

By  the  terms  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820  all  the  552.  status 
Louisiana  Purchase  territory  north  of  the  line  36°  30',  except  ana  Purchase" 

the  state  of  Missouri  itself,  was  closed  to  slavery.    It  was  an  territory 

in  1850 
immense  region  of  over  half  a  million  square  miles,  larger  than 

all  the  free  states  east  of  the  Missouri  River  combined.  While 
the  attention  of  the  country  had  been  fixed  on  the  annexation 
of  Texas,  the  acquisition  of  the  territory  of  Oregon  in  the  Far 
West,  the  Mexican  War,  and  the  organization  of  the  vast  Mexi 
can  cession  of  California  and  New  Mexico,  this  Louisiana  terri 
tory  had  remained  almost  unnoticed.  Up  to  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  only  the  single  state  of  Iowa  (1846)  and  the 
single  territory  of  Minnesota  (1848)  had  been  formed  out  of  it. 
The  rest  of  the  region,  extending  from  the  Missouri  River  to 
the  Rockies,  was  unorganized  Indian  territory  in  1850,  with 
less  than  1000  white  inhabitants.  The  addition  to  our  domain, 
however,  of  the  land  west  of  the  Rockies  at  once  made  the 
organization  of  the  middle  part  of  the  Louisiana  region  (then 
known  as  Nebraska)  important  as  a  link  between  the  Missis 
sippi  Valley  and  the  Pacific.  Thousands  of  emigrants  were 
passing  through  the  country  on  their  way  to  the  gold  fields  of 

379 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


553.  Stephen 
A.  Douglas 
introduces 


California,  and  the  settlers  of  Missouri  and  Iowa,  with  the 
irrepressible  American  frontier  spirit,  were  eager  to  drive  the 
Indians  from  their  borders  and  to  press  westward  into  the  rich 
valleys  of  the  Kansas  and  Missouri  rivers. 

Accordingly,  soon  after  the  assembling  of  President  Pierce's 
first  Congress,  in  December,  1853,  on  a  motion  of  Senator  Dodge 
BiiiNjaiuary  of  Iowa>  a  bil1  was  brought  up  in  the  Senate,  by  the  committee 
4,  1854  on  territories,  for  the  organization  of  Nebraska.  The  chairman 

of  this  committee  was  Stephen  A.  Douglas  of  Illinois,  a  self- 
made  man  of  tremendous  energy, 
a  masterful  politician,  and  an  un 
rivaled  debater,  who  had  come 
from  a  Vermont  farm  to  the  new 
Western  country  as  a  very  young 
man,  and  had  risen  rapidly  through 
minor  offices  to  a  judgeship  in  the 
supreme  court  of  Illinois.  He  was 
sent  to  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  in  1843,  and  to  the  Senate  in 
1846.  Although  then  but  thirty- 
three  years  of  age,  Douglas  im 
mediately  assumed  an  important 
place  in  the  Senate,  through  his 
brilliant  powers  of  debate.  He 

was  soon  recognized  as  the  leader  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
the  North,  and  after  the  death  of  Calhoun,  Clay,  and  Webster, 
he  became  the  foremost  figure  in  American  public  life. 

The  Nebraska  Bill,  prepared  by  Douglas  and  submitted  to 
the  Senate,  January  4,  1854,  provided  that  the  territory  of 
Nebraska  should  be  organized  on  the  principle  of  popular 
sovereignty  (or  "  squatter  sovereignty ")  as  set  forth  in  the 
Compromise  of  1850.  "All  questions  pertaining  to  slavery  in 
the  territories  and  the  new  states  formed  therefrom,"  it  read, 
"  are  to  be  left  to  the  decision  of  the  people  residing  therein,  by 
their  appropriate  representatives." 


Stephen  A.  Douglas 


Approaching  the  Crisis  381 

This  bill  was  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  Missouri  Compro-  554.  The 
mise,  which  had  forever  excluded  slavery  from  all  the  Louisiana 


territory  north  of  ^6°  ^o'.    Douglas  did  not  mention  the  Missouri  Bill>  Janu 

ary  23,  1854 
Compromise  in  his  bill,  but  when   Southern   Senators  urged 

an  amendment  explicitly  repealing  the  Compromise,  Douglas 
yielded.  After  getting  the  consent  of  President  Pierce  to  this 
measure  through  a  private  audience  arranged  by  the  Secretary 
•of  War,  Jefferson  Davis,  Douglas  on  the  twenty-third  of 
January  substituted  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  for  the  original 
Nebraska  Bill.  This  new  bill  declared  that  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  was  "  superseded  by  the  principle  of  the  legislation  of 
1850  "  ;  and  it  divided  the  territory  into  two"parts  by'the  parallel 
of  37°  north  latitude,  —  Kansas  to  the  south  (into  which  it  was 
expected  slavery  would  enter),  and  Nebraska  to  the  north  (which 
would  probably  be  free  soil). 

The  indignation  of  the  North  over  the  proposed  annulment  555.  "The 
of  the  Missouri   Compromise  was  instantaneous  and   strong,  ^f^pendlnt6 
The   day  after  the   Kansas-Nebraska   Bill  was   reported,   the  Democrats" 
Free-Soil   men    in  Congress,  led    by  Senator  Chase  of   Ohio, 
issued  a  spirited  protest  entitled  "  The  Appeal  of  the  Independent 
Democrats."    They  denounced  the  bill  as  "  a  gross  violation 
of  a  sacred  pledge,"  an  "  atrocious  plot  "  to  convert  the  western 
territory  "  into  a  dreary  region  of  despotism  inhabited  by  masters 
and  slaves."    The  Missouri  Compromise,  they  said,  had  been 
for  more  than  half  the  period  of  our  national  existence  "  uni 
versally  regarded  and  acted  upon  as  inviolable  American  law." 
They  called  upon  all  good  citizens  to  protest  by  every  means 
possible  against  "  the  enormous  crime  "  of  its  annulment. 

The  appeal  was  promptly  heeded.    Hundreds  of  mass  meet-  555.  indig- 
ings  were  held  in  the  North  to  denounce  the  bill.    The  legisla-  ^rth  o°verhe 
tures  of  Maine,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  New  York,  and  Douglas's  bill 
Wisconsin  sent  their  protests  to  Congress.    Senator  Seward  of 
New  York  wrote  :  "  A  storm  is  rising,  and  such  a  one  as  our 
country  has  never  yet  seen."    Douglas  was  denounced  as  a  turn 
coat,  a  traitor,  a  Judas,  a  Benedict  Arnold,  who  had  sold  himself 


382  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

to  the  South  for  the  presidential  nomination.  He  was  burned  in 
effigy  so  frequently  that  he  himself  said  he  could  travel  from 
Boston  to  Chicago  by  the  light  of  the  fires. 

557.  why  Just  what  Douglas's  motives  were  in  advocating  the  repeal 

advocated  the  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  will  never  be  known.  He  certainly 
Missouri t]  kad  Put  himself  squarely  on  record  as  a  champion  of  that  meas- 
Compromise  ure,  voting  in  the  House  for  the  36°  30'  line  at  the  time  of  the 
annexation  of  Texas  in  1845,  an<^  declaring  in  a  speech  in  the 
Senate  four  years  later  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  was 
"  canonized  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people  as  a  thing 
which  no  ruthless  hand  would  ever  be  reckless  enough  to  dis 
turb."  Yet  he  now  maintained  that  by  the  Compromise  of  1850 
the  American  people  had  substituted  for  the  principle  of  a  line 
dividing  free  territory  from  slave  territory  the  new  principle  of 
the  choice  of  the  people  of  the  territory  themselves,  and  that  he 
acquiesced  gladly  in  that  change  of  principle.  There  was  noth 
ing  illegal  about  abrogating  the  Missouri  Compromise.  It  was 
simply  a  law  of  Congress,  even  with  the  word  "  forever  "  in 
it  —  and  a  law  of  Congress  may  be  repealed  by  any  subse 
quent  Congress.  It  is  true  that  Douglas  could  not  hope  to  win 
the  Democratic  nomination  for  President  without  the  favor  of 
the  South,  and  perhaps  this  fact  is  sufficient  to  account  for  his 
willingness  to  open  the  Kansas-Nebraska  territory  to  slavery. 
For  the  men  who  in  all  probability  would  be  his  rivals  for  the 
nomination  in  1856  were  all,  in  one  way  or  another,  courting 
the  favor  of  the  South  in  I854.1  But  this  does  not  prove  that 
Douglas,  with  his  hearty  Western  confidence  in  the  ability  of 
the  people  of  a  locality  to  manage  their  own  affairs,  was  not 
perfectly  honest  in  preferring  the  "popular-sovereignty"  prin 
ciple  of  1850  to  the  Missouri-Compromise  principle  of  1820. 
His  position  was  much  like  that  of  Daniel  Webster  in  the 
seventh  of  March  speech  four  years  earlier  (p.  360). 

1  These  men  were  President  Pierce,  who  was  almost  slavishly  following  the 
guidance  of  his  Secretary  of  War,  Jefferson  Davis  ;  Secretary  of  State  Marcy,  who 
advocated  the  annexation  of  Cuba;  and  our  Minister  to  England,  Buchanan, 
who  signed  the  Ostend  Manifesto. 


Approaching  the  Crisis 


383 


In  the  debate  on  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  Douglas  proved  558.  The 
himself  the  master  of  all  his  opponents.    Alone  he  faced  the 
fire  of  Wade,  Chase,  Seward,  Sumner,  and  Everett,  —  all  mas-      aw 
terly  speakers,  —  meeting  their  attacks  at  every  point  with  a  3°,  1854 
vigor  and  tact  which  won  even  from  his  adversaries  expressions 
of  admiration.    On  March  2,  1854,  after  a  continuous  session 


Our  Western  Territories,  1854 

of  thirty-seven  hours,  which  he  closed  with  a  speech  lasting 
from  midnight  to  dawn,  Douglas  carried  the  bill  through  the 
Senate  by  a  vote  of  37  to  14.  It  passed  the  House  a  few  days 
later  by  the  close  vote  of  1 13  to  100,  and  was  signed  by  Pierce. 
Thus  the  Missouri  Compromise,  for  thirty-four  years  "  canonized 
in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people,"  was  repealed,  and 
485,000  square  miles  of  territory  that  had  been  "forever" 
dedicated  to  freedom  were  opened  to  the  slaveholder. 


384  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

Mr.  James  Ford  Rhodes,  the  foremost  historian  of  this 
period,  says  that  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  was  "  the  most 
momentous  measure  that  passed  Congress  from  the  day  the 
Senators  and  Representatives  first  met  until  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War."1  It  was  the  end  of  compromise  on  the  slavery 
question.  It  was  the  declaration  on  the  part  of  the  South  that 
no  more  lines  of  latitude  or  acts  of  Congress  could  debar 
slavery  from  the  territories  of  the  United  States.  It  suddenly 
woke  the  North  to  the  realization  that  no  concession  would 
satisfy  the  slaveholder  short  of  the  recognition  of  slavery  as 
a  national  institution. 

559.  Growth  The  first  effect  of  the  bill  was  a  great  accession  to  the  anti- 
ist  sentiment  slavery  ranks  in  the  North.  Horace  Greeley,  editor  of  the  New 
m  the  North  Tribune,  the  most  influential  newspaper  in  the  country  at 


this  period,  wrote,  "  Pierce  and  Douglas  have  made  more 
abolitionists  in  three  months  than  Garrison  and  Phillips  could 
have  done  in  half  a  century."  Deprived  of  their  free  territory 
in  the  West,  the  abolitionists  determined  that  henceforth  there 
should  be  no  quarter  given  to  slavery  in  the  free  states  of  the 
North.  They  began  again  to  resist  the  Fugitive-Slave  Law  of 
1850,  now  not  a  "band  of  fanatics,"  but  a  great  company  of 
men  of  culture,  rank,  and  wealth. 

560.  "uncle  The  acquiescence  of  the  "Christian  and  humane  people  of 
cabin,  "1852  the  North"  in  the  law  of  1850  had  stirred  Mrs.  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe  to  write  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  an  exaggerated 
but  powerful  portrayal  of  the  moral  degradation  to  which  slave- 
holding  can  reduce  a  man.  She  had  implored  the  "  kind  and 
estimable  people  of  the  North  "  no  longer  "  to  defend,  sym 
pathize  with,  or  pass  over  in  silence  "  this  horrible  institution.2 

1  Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850,  Vol.  I, 
p.  490. 

2  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  chap,  xlv,  "  Concluding  Remarks."   This  novel  had 
a  wonderful  sale,  and  was  translated  into  nearly  all  the  languages  of  Europe. 
No  other  novel  has  had  the  effect  on  the  public  affairs  of  the  nation  that  this 
story  of  "  Life  among  the  Lowly  "  had.   It  is  said  that  when  Mrs.  Stowe  was 
presented  to  President  Lincoln  in  the  White  House  a  few  years  later,  he  said,  on 
shaking  her  hand,  "  So  this  i's  the  woman  who  brought  on  the  Civil  War." 


Approaching  the  Crisis  385 

The  work  of  Douglas  gave  point  to  the  appeal  of  Mrs.  Stowe.  561.  The 
Ten  states  of  the  North  passed  Personal-Liberty  acts,  forbidding  Liberty  acts 
their  officers  to  aid  in  the  seizure  of  fugitive  slaves,  denying  the 
use  of  their  jails  for  the  detention  or  imprisonment  of  fugitives, 
ordering  their  courts  to  provide  jury  trials  for  all  negroes  seized 
in  the  state,  and  generally  annulling  the  provisions  of  the  Fugi 
tive-Slave  Law  of  1850.  When  the  fugitive  Anthony  Burns 
was  arrested  in  Boston  in  1854,  a  "  mob,"  in  which  were  some 
of  the  most  prominent  authors,  preachers,  and  philanthropists  of 
the  city,  attempted  to  rescue  him  by  battering  down  the  doors 
of  the  jail.  He  had  to  be  escorted  to  the  wharf  by  battalions 
of  United  States  artillery  and  marines,  through  streets  cleared 
by  the  cavalry  and  lined  with  50,000  hooting,  hissing,  jeering, 
groaning  men,  under  windows  draped  in  mourning  and  hung 
with  the  American  flag  bordered  with  black.  It  cost  the  United 
States  government  $40,000  to  return  Anthony  Burns  to  his 
Virginia  master. 

The  political  effect  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  552.  The 
was  no  less  remarkable  than  the  moral  effect,  for  it  led  directly  J^WM*  °f 
to  the  formation  of  a  new  and  powerful  party.    The  Whigs,  party 
although  badly  beaten  by  Pierce  in  the  election  of  1852,  had 
nevertheless  sent  over  60  members  to  Congress.    A  majority 
of  the  Southern  Whigs  voted  for  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill, 
while  every  single  one  of  the  45  Northern  Whigs  voted  against 
it.    This  vote  showed  that  the  old  Whig  party  was  hopelessly 
split  by  the  slavery  issue  into  a  Northern  and  a  Southern  wing. 
The  proslavery  Whigs  of  the  South  gradually  went  over  to  the 
Democratic  party,  until  by  the  end  of  1855   there  were  only 
the  mere  remnants  of  the  once  powerful  Whig  party  south  of 
the  Potomac.1   The  South  then  became  (and  has  remained  till 
now)  a  "  solid  "  Democratic  South.  At  the  North  the  Whigs  were 
stronger,  but  the  Northern  Whigs  alone  could  not  hope  either  to 

1  The  process  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Whig  party  in  the  South  began  when 
thousands  deserted  Scott  for  Pierce  in  the  presidential  election  of  1852,  fearing 
that  Scott  was  "  tinged  with  Free-Soil  principles."  The  vote  on  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill  completed  the  process. 


386  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

control  Congress  or  to  elect  a  President.  They  were  overwhelm 
ingly  opposed  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  as  we  have  seen,  and 
hoped  that  the  other  Anti-Nebraska  men  of  the  North  —  the 
Free-Soilers,  the  Know-Nothings,1  and  the  Anti-Nebraska  Demo 
crats2  —  would  join  them  in  making  a  great*  new  Whig-Unionist 
party.  But  they  were  mistaken.  Most  of  the  Northern  Demo 
crats  were  skillfully  rallied  to  the  party  standards  by  the  incom 
parable  activity  of  Douglas ;  while  the  Free-Soil  men  had  no 
intention  of  subordinating  the  one  great  issue  of  slavery  to  the 
questions  of  high  tariff,  internal  improvements,  a  national  bank, 
or  any  other  doctrine  of  the  Whig  platform.  If  the  Anti- 
Nebraska  Whigs  wished  to  see  a  united  North,  they  them 
selves  would  be  forced  to  come  into  the  new  party  which 
was  already  gathering  the  determined  antislavery  men  out  of 
every  political  camp. 

563.  Forma-  This  new  party  was  formed  at  Jackson,  Michigan,  a  few 
new  Repub-  weeks  after  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  in  re- 
sPonse  to  a  cal1  f°r  a  state  mass  meeting  of  all  men  opposed 
to  the  extension  of  slavery  (July  6,  1854).  No  hall  was  large 
enough  to  hold  the  immense  gathering,  which  adjourned  to  a 
grove  of  oaks  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  Amid  great 
enthusiasm  the  meeting  declared  that  slavery  was  a  great 
"  moral,  social,  and  political  evil,"  demanded  the  repeal  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act  and  of  the  Fugitive-Slave  Law  of  1850, 
and  resolved  that  "  postponing  all  differences  with  regard  to 
political  economy  or  administrative  policy,"  they  would  "act 
cordially  and  faithfully  in  unison "  until  the  contest  with  slavery 

1  The  Know-Nothing  party  was  the  most  curious   development  in  our  politi 
cal  life.    It  originated  in  1852  as  a  protest  against  foreign  (especially  Roman 
Catholic)  influence  in  our  politics.    It  was  more  like  a  lodge,  or  secret  order, 
than  a  political  party.   The  chaos  in  the  old  Whig  and  Democratic  parties  pro 
duced  by  the  Kansas-Nebraska  agitation  drove  thousands  into  the  ranks  of  the 
Know-Nothings  simply  because  they  had  no  other  place  to  go  to.  Thus  that  queer 
secret  society  actually  carried  several  states  in  the  elections  of  1854  and  1855, 
and  gained  a  momentary  political  significance  far  beyond  its  real  importance. 

2  The  86  Northern  Democrats  in  the  House  had  been  almost  evenly  divided 
on  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  —  44  for  it,  42  against  it. 


Approaching  the  Crisis  387 

was  ended.  They  adopted  the  name  "  Republican,"  1  nominated 
an  entire  state  ticket,  and  invited  other  states  to  follow  them. 
State  after  state  responded,  organizing  the  Anti-Nebraska  forces 
into  the  Republican  party,  until  at  the  close  of  1855  the  chair 
men  of  the  Republican  committees  in  Ohio,  Massachusetts,  Ver 
mont,  Pennsylvania,  and  Wisconsin  issued  a  call  for  a  national 
Republican  convention  to  be  held  at  Pittsburg  on  February  22, 
1856,  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  a  national  Republican 
party  and  appointing  a  time  and  place  for  nominating  a  presi 
dential  candidate.  From  this  convention  the  Republican  party 
issued  full-grown. 

The  formation  of  the  Republican  party  was  a  direct  result  of  564.  Mistake 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  The  party  was  really  rousing  the"1 
called  into  existence  by  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  who,  as  we  shall 
see  later,  had  cause  bitterly  to  regret  his  blunder  in  conjuring  North 
up  the  antislavery  spirit  of  the  North.  There  was  no  good  rea 
son  in  the  year  1854  for  disturbing  the  compromise  agreed  on  in 
1850.  On  the  basis  of  that  compromise  the  Democratic  party 
had  achieved  an  overwhelming  success  at  the  polls  in  1852,  the 
Southern  states  had  declared  their  continued  adherence  to  the 
Union,  and  commercial  and  industrial  prosperity  was  general. 
One  might  confidently  have  prophesied,  at  the  opening  of  the 
year  1854,  a  long  and  undisturbed  tenure  of  power  for  the 
Democratic  party.  At  the  end  of  that  year  the  country  was  in 
a  ferment.  The  Democratic  majority  of  84  in  the  House  had 
been  changed  to  a  minority  of  7 5.  A  new  party  had  been  formed 
which  in  a  few  years  was  to  defeat  the  Democrats  both  of  the 
North  and  of  the  South  and  give  the  death  blow  to  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery,  to  which  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  had 
seemed  to  open  new  and  promising  territory. 

1  The  organization  and  the  name  had  both  been  suggested  by  an  antislavery 
meeting  at  Ripon,  Wisconsin,  before  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  had  passed. 


388  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


"  BLEEDING  KANSAS  " 

565.  The  When  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  became  law,  Douglas  boasted 
Aid  society   that  "  the  struggle  over  slavery  was  forever  banished  from  the 

halls  of  Congress  to  the  Western  plains."  He  was  mistaken 
about  its  being  banished  from  the  halls  of  Congress,  but  right 
about  its  reaching  the  Western  plains.  While  the  bill  was  still 
pending,  a  group  of  determined  Free-Soilers  in  Massachusetts 
resolved  that  if  the  question  of  slavery  was  to  be  left  to  the 
settlers  of  Kansas,  then  Kansas  should  be  settled  by  antislavery 
men.  Accordingly,  at  the  suggestion  of  Eli  Thayer  of  Worces 
ter,  they  formed  the  New  England  Emigrant  Aid  Society,  whose 
object  was  to  conduct  companies  of  emigrants  to  the  new 
territories,  and  help  them  with  loans  for  the  erection  of  houses 
and  the  cultivation  of  farms.  The  first  colony,  some  thirty 
men  and  women,  arrived  in  Kansas  in  the  summer  of  1854. 
By  March,  1855,  several  hundred  emigrants  had  come,  and 
were  busy  building  the  town  of  Lawrence,1  on  the  Kansas 
River.  In  less  than  three  months  over  fifty  dwellings  wrere 
built,  a  hotel  and  public  buildings  were  started,  and  Lawrence 
had  taken  on  the  aspect  of  a  thriving  New  England  town. 

566.  The          This  attempt  to  "  abolitionize  Kansas  "  infuriated  the  South, 
"invade"     and  above  all  the  neighboring  state  of  Missouri.    It  was  from 

Missouri  especially  that  the  demand  had  come  for  the  organi 
zation  of  the  new  territory.  The  Missourians  confidently  ex 
pected  to  make  it  eventually  a  slaveholding  state.  But  this 
inrush  of  Free-Soil  emigrants  from  New  England  was  spoiling 
the  plan.  The  Missourians  called  the  emigrants  "  an  army  of 
hirelings,"  "  reckless  and  desperate  fanatics,"  who  "  had  none  of 
the  purpose  of  the  real  pioneers,"  but  were  clothed  and  fed,  as 

1  The  town  was  named  after  A.  A.  Lawrence,  a  noted  merchant  and  philan 
thropist  of  Boston,  who  was  one  of  the  chief  supporters  of  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Society.  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  the  abolitionist  poet,  gave  the  colonists  their 
marching  song : 

We  cross  the  prairie  as  of  old  the  pilgrims  crossed  the  sea, 

To  make  the  West,  as  they  the  East,  the  homestead  of  the  free ! 


Approaching  the  Crisis  389 

they  were  transported,  by  abolitionist  "  meddlers  "  of  the  North, 
who  wanted  to  prevent  a  fair  and  natural  settlement  of  Kansas. 
Accordingly  large  bands  of  armed  men  were  organized  in  the 
border  counties  of  Missouri  for  the  purpose  of  crossing  into 
Kansas  and  terrorizing  the  Free-Soil  settlers. 

These  "  border  ruffians  "  from  Missouri  swarmed  into  the  567.  They 
Kansas  territory  whenever  elections    were  held.    Their  thou-  slavery Piegis- 
sands  of   fraudulent   votes    elected    a   proslavery  delegate  to  territory,1*6 
Congress  in  the  autumn  of  1854,  and  the  next  spring,  on  the  March  3o', 
day  set  by  the  governor  for  the  election  of  a  territorial  legisla 
ture  (March  30,  1855),  "  an  unkempt,  sundried,  blatant,  pictur 
esque  mob"  of  5000  Missourians  marched  to  the  polls.    Over 
three  fourths  of   the   votes    were    cast  by   these   Missourian 
"  invaders,"  and  the  legislature  which  they  elected  was  decid 
edly  proslavery.    It  ignored  Governor  Reeder's  remonstrances, 
removed  its  meeting  place  to  a  point  near  the  Missouri  border, 
and  proceeded  to   enact   a  code  of  laws  for  the  territory,  by 
which  the  severest  penalties  were  decreed  against  any  one  who 
attempted  to  aid  slaves  to  escape  or  even  spoke  or  wrote  of 
slavery  as  illegal  in  the  territory.    This  high-handed  conduct  of 
the  Missourians  was  applauded  by  the   South  generally,  and 
companies  of  volunteers  from  Alabama,  Florida,  South  Carolina, 
and  Georgia  marched  to  Kansas   to  join  the   Missourians  in 
the  battle  "  for  slavery  and  the  South." 

A  wave  of  indignation   ran  through  the   North.     "  It  has  568.  The 
lately  been  maintained  by  the  sharp  logic  of  the  revolver  and  government 
the  bowie  knife  that  the  people  of  Missouri  are  the  people  of  *J  Jopeka> 
Kansas,"  cried  Edward  Everett  of  Massachusetts  in  a  stirring 
oration  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1855.    The  Free-Soil  emigrants 
in  Kansas,  who  now  numbered  over  3000,  refused  to  recognize 
the  legislature  elected  by  the  "  border  ruffians  "  from  Missouri. 
Their  delegates  met  at  Topeka,  organized  an  antislavery  govern 
ment,  and,  following  the  example  of  California,  six  years  earlier, 
applied  to  Congress  for  immediate  admission  to  the  Union  as 
a  free  state. 


390 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


569.  civil  In  the  spring  of  1856,  then,  there  were  two  hostile  govern- 

sas,  1855-1856  merits  facing  each  other  in  Kansas,  each  charging  the  other 
with  fraud  and  violence.  The  Free-Soil  party  was  determined 
that  Kansas  should  not  be  sacrificed  to  the  slave  interests  of 
Missouri.  "  If  slavery  in  Missouri  is  impossible  with  freedom 
in  Kansas,"  said  their  leader,  Robinson,  "  then  slavery  in 
Missouri  must  die  that  freedom  in  Kansas  may  live."  The 
proslavery  men,  on  the  other  hand,  declared  that  they  would 
win  Kansas,  though  they  had  to  wade  in  blood  to  their  knees. 


570.  The 
sack  of  Law 
rence,  May 
21,  1856 


Civil  War  in  Kansas,  1855-1857 

It  was  inevitable  that  deeds  of  violence  should  occur  under 
such  circumstances.  The  Missourian  invaders  were  always 
armed  to  the  teeth,  and  quantities  of  Sharpe's  rifles  had  been 
sent  out  from  the  North  for  the  defense  of  freedom  in  Kansas. 
The  Free-Soilers  fortified  their  capital,  Lawrence,  by  earthworks, 
and  planted  a  cannon  in  the  town.  It  needed  only  the  spark 
to  start  the  conflagration.  That  was  furnished  by  the  attempt 
of  a  sheriff  to  serve  a  warrant  for  arrest  on  a  citizen  in  Law 
rence.  An  assassin  shot  the  sheriff  in  the  back,  severely 
wounding  him.  The  Free-Soil  authorities  (who  were  making 
every  effort  to  avert  deeds  of  violence)  denounced  the  act  and 


Approaching  the  Crisis  39  * 

offered  a  reward  for  the  capture  of  the  assassin.  But  the 
deed  was  done.  The  Missourians  gathered  "  to  wipe  out 
Lawrence."  They  attacked  the  town  on  the  twenty-first  of  May, 
1856,  destroyed  the  public  buildings,  the  Free  State  Hotel,  and 
the  printing  offices  of  the  abolitionist  papers,  sacked  and  burned 
private  dwellings,  and  retired,  leaving  the  citizens  destitute 
and  desperate. 

The  sack  of  Lawrence  was  frightfully  avenged  three  days  571.  John 
later.    John  Brown,  an  old  man  of  the  stock  of  the  Puritans, 


with  the  Puritan  idea  that  he  was  appointed  by  God  to  smite  the  Potta- 

J  watomie, 

His  enemies,  led  a  small  band  of  men  (including  his  four  sons)  May  24,  1856 

to  a  proslavery  settlement  on  the  banks  of  Pottawatomie  Creek, 
and  there  dragging  five  men  from  their  beds  at  dead  of  night, 
massacred  them  in  cold  blood.  Thenceforward  there  was  war 
in  Kansas  when  Free-Soilers  met  proslavery  men.  The  dis 
tracted  territory  was  given  over  to  feud  and  violence.  "  Bitter 
remembrances  filled  each  man's  mind,"  wrote  an  Englishman 
who  traveled  through  Kansas  at  this  time,  "  and  impelled  to 
daily  acts  of  hostility  and  not  unfrequent  bloodshed."  "  Bleed-  • 
ing  Kansas  "  became  the  topic  of  the  hour  throughout  the  North. 

It  was  folly  in  the  administration  at  Washington  to  think  that  572.  HOW 
it  could  still  hold  to  the  doctrine  of  nonintervention  in  the  ter-  pierce  dealt 


ritories  when  civil  war  was  going  on  in  Kansas.  President 
Pierce  ignored  the  situation  as  long  as  he  could,  declaring  in  his  situation 
message  of  December,  1855  (when  a  force  of  1500  Missourians 
was  already  encamped  on  the  Wakarusa  River,  waiting  to  attack 
Lawrence),  that  there  had  been  disorderly  acts  in  Kansas  but 
that  nothing  had  occurred  as  yet  "  to  justify  the  interposition  of 
the  federal  executive."  The  next  month,  however,  Pierce  sent 
a  special  message  to  Congress,  in  which  he  took  sides  squarely 
with  the  proslavery  party  in  Kansas.  He  did  not  deny  that 
there  might  have  been  "  irregularities  "  in  the  election  of  the 
territorial  legislature,  but  he  recognized  that  legislature  as  the 
lawful  one  and  declared  his  intention  of  supporting  it  with  all 
the  authority  of  the  United  States.  The  message  plainly  shows 


392 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


573.  The 


gress 


574.  Brooks 's 
assault  on 
Sumner,  May 
22,  1856 


the  hand  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  Jefferson  Davis  of  Missis 
sippi,  who  controlled  the  administration  of  President  Pierce. 

It  was  folly  also  in  Douglas  to  think  that  the  slavery  ques- 
tion  could  be  "banished  from  the  halls  of  Congress"  by  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act.  The  very  passage  of  that  act,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  caused  the  election  of  enough  Anti-Nebraska  men  to 
Congress  in  1854  to  change  a  large  Democratic  majority  into  a 
minority.  After  a  contest  of  two  months  the  House  elected  an 
Anti-Nebraska  man,  N.  P.  Banks  of  Massachusetts,  as  Speaker, 
and  "  Bleeding  Kansas  "  became  the  issue  of  the  session. 
Banks  appointed  a  committee  of  three  to  proceed  to  Kansas 
and  investigate  the  condition  of  the  territory.  Every  new  report 
of  violence  furnished  the  text  for  stirring  orations. 

On  the  twentieth  of  May  Charles  Sumner  of  Massachusetts 
delivered  a  speech  in  the  Senate  on  "  The  Crime  against 
Kansas,"  which  was  the  most  unsparing  philippic  ever  pro 
nounced  in  Congress.  Sumner  lashed  the  slaveholders  with  a 
tongue  of  venom.  He  spared  neither  coarse  abuse  nor  scathing 
sarcasm.  He  attacked  by  name  the  instigators  of  the  "  mur 
derous  robbers  from  Missouri,"  the  "  hirelings  picked  from  the 
drunken  spew  and  vomit  of  civilization."  He  poured  out  his 
vials  of  scornful  insult  upon  the  heads  of  the  slave-driving 
"  aristocrats  "  of  the  South,  until  even  the  masters  of  invective 
on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  stared  aghast  at  his  furious  courage. 

Among  the  senators  especially  singled  out  for  Sumner's 
shafts  was  A.  P.  Butler  of  South  Carolina,  who  was  ill  and 
absent  from  Washington  at  the  time  of  the  speech.  Two  days 
later  Preston  Brooks,  a  representative  from  South  Carolina  and 
a  relative  of  Senator  Butler,  entered  the  Senate  chamber  late  in 
the  afternoon,  when  Sumner  was  bending  over  his  desk  at  work, 
and  beat  him  almost  to  death  with  a  heavy  gutta-percha  cane.1 

1  Sumner,  when  he  had  sufficiently  recovered  from  the  shock  of  this  terrible 
beating,  went  to  Europe  for  treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  most  distinguished 
specialists.  He  was  able  to  resume  his  seat  in  the  Senate  (which  had  been  kept 
vacant  for  him)  in  1859,  but  he  never  recovered  his  old-time  brilliancy.  His  death, 
in  1875,  was  due  to  the  effects  of  the  injuries  administered  by  Brooks. 


Approaching  the  Crisis  393 

Sumner's  speech  had  been  outrageous,  but  Brooks's  attack  was 
unspeakably  base  and  cowardly.  The  motion  to  expel  Brooks 
from  Congress  failed  of  the  necessary  two-thirds  vote,  owing  to 
the  support  given  him  by  the  Southern  members,  and  when  he 
resigned  shortly  afterwards,  he  was  immediately  reflected  by 
the  almost  unanimous  voice  of  his  district  in  South  Carolina. 

Sumner's  speech,  the  attack  of  Brooks,  the  sack  of  Lawrence,  575.  The  Re- 
and    the  massacre  on  the   Pottawatomie   all  occurred  within  Button  at** 


the  five  days,  May  19-24,  1856.  These  events  were  a  sad  j 
commentary  on  "  popular  sovereignty  "  in  Kansas,  and  a  sinister 
omen  for  the  approaching  presidential  campaign.  The  Repub 
lican  nominating  convention  arranged  for  at  Pittsburg  met  at 
Philadelphia,  June  17,  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill.  The  platform  adopted  declared  that  it  was  "  both  the 
right  and  the  duty  of  Congress  "  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the 
territories.  It  condemned  the  policy  of  the  administration  in 
Kansas,  denounced  the  Ostend  Manifesto,  and  demanded  the 
immediate  admission  of  Kansas  as  a  free  state.  Chase  and 
Seward,  the  leading  men  of  the  party,  were  both  passed  over 
on  account  of  their  former  prominence  in  the  Democratic  and 
the  Whig  party  respectively  ;  and  John  C.  Fremont,  of  California, 
"  the  Pathfinder,"  renowned  for  his  explorations  and  his  military 
services  in  the  Far  West  (see  p.  352),  was  nominated  for 
President,  with  Dayton  of  New  Jersey  for  Vice  President. 

The  selection  of  both  of  the  candidates  from  free  states  575.  Threats 
was  in  the  eyes  of  the  South  a  proof  of  the  sectional  character 
of  the  Republican  party  —  the  "Black  Republicans,"  as  the  South 
Southerners  called  them  on  account  of  their  interest  in  the 
negro.  From  all  over  the  South  came  threats  that  Fremont's 
election  would  mean  the  end  of  the  Union.  "  The  Southern 
states,"  wrote  Governor  Wise  of  Virginia,  "  will  not  submit 
to  a  sectional  election  of  a  Free-Soiler  or  Black  Republican. 
...  If  Fremont  is  elected  this  Union  will  not  last  one  year 
from  November  next.  .  .  .  The  country  was  never  in  such 
danger." 


394 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


577.  The 
pacification  of 
Kansas  and 


November, 
1856 


The  Democrats  too  passed  over  their  great  leader,  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  and  nominated  James  Buchanan  of  Pennsylvania, 
a  dignified,  formal,  mediocre  gentleman,  who  was  especially 
"  available  "  because  he  had  been  absent  in  England  as  minister 
during  the  Kansas  struggle.  The  Democrats  realized  that  the 
pacification  of  Kansas  was  the  most  important  element  of  their 
success  in  the  approaching  election.  Every  fresh  deed  of  vio 
lence  reported 
from  the  terri 
tory  was  mak 
ing  thousands 
of  Republican 
converts.  Dem 
ocratic  party 
leaders  vainly 
tried  to  get 
Congress  to  pass 
the  Toombs  bill 
in  midsummer, 
providing  for 
a  new  census 
in  Kansas  and 
the  election  of 
a  territorial  con 
vention  under 
supervision  of 
five  commis- 


6 


The  Election  of  1856 
The  first  Republican  campaign 


sioners  appointed  by  the  President.  But  the  Republicans  had 
had  their  experience  of  Pierce  and  were  not  willing  to  let  him 
choose  the  umpires  for  the  Kansas  elections.1  Failing  in  Con 
gress,  the  Democrats  appealed  to  the  executive  to  interpose  in 

1  Douglas  angrily  accused  the  Republicans  of  wanting  to  keep  the  civil  war 
alive  in  Kansas,  for  the  sake  of  winning  votes.  "  An  angel  from  heaven,"  he 
declared,  "  could  not  write  a  bill  to  restore  peace  in  Kansas  that  would  be 
acceptable  to  the  abolition  Republican  party  previous  to  the  next  presidential 
election." 


Approaching  the  Crisis  395 

Kansas,  and  Pierce  sent  out  a  new  governor  (the  third  in  two 
years),  Geary  of  Pennsylvania,  with  authority  to  use  the  United 
States  troops  to  restore  order.  Geary  drove  the  Missourian  in 
vaders  out  and  stanched  the  wounds  of  bleeding  Kansas  (Sep 
tember,  1856).  The  election  was  saved  for  the  Democrats. 
Buchanan  carried  all  the  slave  states  (except  Maryland),  besides 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  California. 
His  electoral  vote  was  174  to  114  for  Fremont. 

The  whole  conservative  element  of  the  country  was  relieved  578.  signifi- 
by  the  result  of  the  election.    Buchanan  was  deemed  a  "  safe  "  election  o?* 
man,  while    the    erratic,    popular    Fremont,    backed    by    the  l856 
abolitionists  of  the  North,  might  have  precipitated  a  crisis,  even 
if  the  Southern  states  repented  of  their  threats  of  disunion  in 
case  of  his  election.    Still  the  new  Republican  party,  in  its  first 
presidential  campaign,  with  a  comparatively  weak  candidate  at 
that,  had  made  a  remarkable  fight.    It  had  carried  eleven  states 
and  polled  1,341,264  votes  to  1,838,169  for  Buchanan.    With 
an  enthusiasm  as  great  as  that  with  which,  in  the  summer's 
campaign,  they  had  shouted,  "  Free  speech,  free  press,  free  soil, 
J<re-mont   and   Victory  1 "   the    Republicans   now  closed   their 
ranks,  and  entered  on  the  next  four  years'  campaign  with  the 
battle  song  of  Whittier,  the  bard  of  freedom,  ringing  in  their 

ears: 

Then  sound  again  the  bugles, 

Call  the  muster-roll  anew ; 
If  months  have  well-nigh  won  the  field, 

What  may  not  four  years  do  ? 

"A    HOUSE    DIVIDED    AGAINST    ITSELF " 

Buchanan's  election  gave  promise  of  peace.    Order  had  been  579.  The 

restored  in  Kansas  by  the  intervention  of  the  United  States  SSnS^J.1^ 
•>  u&tion.  in  1050 

troops,  and  the  danger  of  an  "  abolitionist "  president  averted. 
The  country  was  on  a  flood  tide  of  material  prosperity  (see  p.  367). 
The  national  debt,  which  stood  at  $68,000,000  in  1850,  had 
been  reduced  to  less  than  $30,000,000.  The  Walker  tariff  of 


396  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

1846,  though  moderate,  was  bringing  into  the  Treasury  so  large 
a  surplus  that  a  new  tariff  bill  was  passed  without  opposition 
in  the  last  month  of  Pierce's  term  (February,  1857),  reducing 
the  rates  by  from  20  to  50  per  cent.  If  only  the  persistent 
slavery  agitation  could  have  been  put  to  rest,  the  land  and  the 
people  of  America  would  have  been  the  happiest  on  the  face 
of  the  earth. 

580.  Buchan-       Buchanan  was  sincerely  anxious  for  harmony.    He  selected 
tion  three  Northern  and  four  Southern  men  for  his  cabinet,  with  the 

veteran  author  of  the  popular-sovereignty  doctrine,  Lewis  Cass, 
for  the  leading  position  of  Secretary  of  State.  He  declared  in 
his  inaugural  address  that  he  owed  his  election  "  to  the  inherent 
love  for  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  which  still  animates  the 
hearts  of  the  American  people,"  and  expressed  the  hope  that  the 
long  agitation  on  slavery  was  now  "  approaching  its  end."  But 
beforethe  echoes  of  the  inaugural  speech  had  died  away,  an  event 
occurred  which  again  roused  the  indignation  of  the  antislavery 
men  of  the  North,  and  won  thousands  more  to  the  conviction 
that  the  sections  of  our  country  could  not  dwell  together  in  har 
mony  until  slavery  was  either  banished  from  our  soil  or  ex 
tended  to  every  part  of  the  Union.  This  event  was  the  Dred 
Scott  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  delivered  March  6,  1857. 

581.  The  Dred  Scott,  a  negro  slave  belonging  to  a  man  in  Missouri, 
decision,          nad  been  taken  by  his  master  into  free  territory  in  the  North- 
March  6,         west  and  brought  back  again  to  Missouri.    Some  years  later  he 

sued  his  master's  widow  for  his  freedom,  on  the  ground  that 
residence  in  a  free  territory  had  emancipated  him.  The  case 
reached  the  highest  court  of  Missouri,  which  pronounced  against 
Scott's  claim.  Meanwhile  he  had  come  into  the  possession  of  a 
New  Yorker  named  Sandford,  and  again  sued  for  his  freedom 
in  the  United  States  circuit  court  of  Missouri.1  The  federal 
court  rendered  the  same  decision  as  the  state  court,  and  Dred's 

1  When  a  citizen  of  one  state  sues  a  citizen  of  another  state,  the  case  is 
tried  in  a  federal,  or  United  States,  court.  Of  course,  the  negro  slave,  Dred 
Scott,  did  not  initiate  this  case  himself.  It  was  managed  by  antislavery  men  in 
Missouri  who  wished  to  test  the  position  of  the  courts  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 


Approaching  the  Crisis  397 

patrons  appealed  the  case  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  The  only  question  before  the  Supreme  Court  was 
whether  it  should  sustain  the  decision  of  the  federal  court  in 
Missouri  or  reverse  it.  But  after  the  decision  was  made,  sus 
taining  the  Missouri  court  in  denying  Dred  Scott  his  liberty, 
the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  Roger  B.  Taney  of 
Maryland,  who  had  been  appointed  by  President  Jackson  on 
the  death  of  John  Marshall  in  1835,  went  on  to  deliver  a  long 
opinion l  on  the  status  of  the  negro.  The  negro  was  not  a  citi 
zen,  he  declared,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  That  Constitution  was  made  for  white  men  only.  The 
blacks,  at  the  time  of  its  adoption,  were  regarded  as  "so  far 
inferior  that  they  had  no  rights  which  the  white  man  was 
bound  to  respect."  Not  being  a  citizen,  the  negro  could  not  sue 
in  a  court  of  the  United  States,  and  no  law  of  Congress  was 
constitutional  which  pretended  to  confirm  or  protect  him  in  legal 
rights.  In  a  word,  the  national  government  had  no  more  juris 
diction  over  slaves  than  over  any  other  property  of  the  citizens 
of  the  various  states  of  the  Union. 

The  Southerners  were  jubilant.  At  last  the  extreme  pro-  582.  impor- 
slavery  doctrine  of  Calhoun  and  Davis  (note,  p.  353)  was  JgciSon " 
recognized  by  the  federal  power  at  Washington,  and  by  the 
most  august  branch  of  that  power,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  "  The  nation  has  achieved  a  triumph  ;  sectional 
ism  has  been  rebuked  and  abolitionism  has  been  staggered  and 
stunned,"  said  a  Richmond  paper.  But  the  Northern  press 
spoke  of  "  sullied  ermine "  and  "  judicial  robes  polluted  in 
the  filth  of  proslavery  politics."  "  The  people  of  the  United 
States,"  cried  Seward,  "  never  can  and  never  will  accept 
principles  so  abhorrent." 

Flushed  with  their  victory  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  the  ex-  533.  The  Le- 
treme  proslavery  men  made  still  further  demands  on  the  national  stitutionCOn 
government.  Buchanan  had  sent  a  fair  and  able  governor  to  Dec.  ax,  1857 

1  An  opinion  expressed  by  a  judge  beyond  what  is  called  for  in  the  actual  case 
is  called  obiter  dictum,  a  Latin  phrase  meaning  literally  "  spoken  by  the  way." 


398  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

succeed  Geary  in  Kansas,  in  the  person  of  Robert  J.  Walker  of 
Mississippi,  ex-Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Under  Walker's  call 
a  convention  met  at  Lecompton,  Kansas,  in  September,  1857,  to 
frame  a  constitution  for  the  territory.  The  Free-Soil  men  refused 
to  attend  the  convention,  remembering  the  frauds  of  the  earlier 
elections,  but  they  were  persuaded  by  Walker's  good  faith  to 
take  part  in  the  elections  for  a  territorial  legislature  in  October, 
and  succeeded  in  returning  a  majority  of  Free-Soil  members. 
When  the  proslavery  convention  in  session  at  Lecompton  saw 
that  the  Free-Soil  men  would  control  the  legislature  of  the  terri 
tory,  they  determined  to  force  a  proslavery  constitution  on 
Kansas  by  fraud.  They  drew  up  a  constitution  in  which  the 
protection  of  all  the  existing  slave  property  in  Kansas  was 
guaranteed,  and  then  submitted  it  to  the  vote  of  the  people  to 
be  adopted  with  slavery  or  without  slavery.  Whichever  way  the 
people  voted,  there  would  be  slavery  in  Kansas  ;  for  a  vote  for 
"  the  constitution  with  slavery  "  meant  that  more  slaveholders 
would  be  admitted,  while  a  vote  for  "  the  constitution  without 
slavery  "  meant  that  no  more  slaveholders  would  be  admitted, 
but  that  those  who  were  already  there  would  be  protected  in 
their  property.  The  Free-Soil  men  denounced  the  fraud,  and  de 
manded  that  the  vote  should  be  simply  Yes  or  No  on  the  whole 
Lecompton  Constitution.  They  stayed  away  from  the  polls, 
and  the  proslavery  people  adopted  the  "  constitution  with 
slavery,"  casting  in  all  6700  votes  (December  21,  1857).  Two 
weeks  later,  the  Free-Soil  legislature  put  the  Lecompton  Con 
stitution  as  a  whole  before  the  people,  and  the  free-soil  citizens 
rejected  it  by  a  vote  of  over  10,000.  It  was  clear  enough  that 
the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  Kansas  did  not  want  slavery. 

584.  The  When  the  news  of  the  affair  of  the  Lecompton  Constitution 

Lecompton 

Constitution    came  to  Buchanan's  first  Congress,  assembled  in  December, 


he     l857>  Douglas  immediately  protested  against  the  fraud  as  a 
DPou°Sias°n  °f  violation  °f  tne  principle  of  popular  sovereignty,  on  which  the 
territory  was  organized.    The  people  of    Kansas,  he  insisted, 
must  be  allowed  to  vote  fairly  on  the  question  of  slavery  or  no 


Approaching  the  Crisis  399 

slavery  in  the  territory.  A  new  convention  must  be  called,  and 
a  new  constitution  submitted.  But  the  Southerners  were  bound 
to  have  the  Lecompton  Constitution  stand.  They  won  the 
President  to  their  side,  and  in  February,  1858,  in  spite  of  the 
10,000  majority  against  the  constitution  in  Kansas  a  month 
before,  Buchanan  sent  the  Lecompton  Constitution  to  the  Senate 
with  the  recommendation  that  Kansas  be  admitted  as  a  state 
under  its  provisions.  Douglas  was  firm.  He  defied  the  admin 
istration,  rebuked  President  Buchanan  to  his  face,  and  labored 
with  might  and  main  to  defeat  the  bill.  The  South  assailed  him 
as  a  "  traitor  "  and  a  "  renegade  "  and  a  "  Judas,"  —  the  very 
epithets  with  which  he  had  been  branded  in  the  North  four" 
years  earlier.  In  spite  of  his  efforts,  the  bill  was  passed  by  the 
Senate  (33  to  2  5),  Douglas  voting  in  the  negative  with  the  Repub 
licans  Sumner,  Chase,  Wade,  Hale,  and  Seward,  whom  he  had  so 
unmercifully  handled  in  the  debate  over  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill.  The  House  defeated  the  bill  to  admit  Kansas,  and  after  a 
conference  the  Senate  agreed  to  submit  the  Lecompton  Consti 
tution  again  to  the  people  of  the  territory,  who  again  rejected 
it  by  the  decisive  vote  of  11,000  to  2000.1 

Douglas's  second  term  in  the  United  States  Senate  was  about  585.  Douglas 
to  expire,  and  he  returned  to  Illinois  in  the  summer  of  1858  to  rivals* 
make  the  canvass  for  his  reelection,  in  disgrace  with  the  admin- 
istration  and  in  some  private  embarrassment.2  His  Republican 
rival  for  the  senatorship  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  two  men 
had  known  each  other  for  twenty  years.  They  were  both  alike 
in  being  poor  farmers'  sons,  who  had  come  into  the  growing 
state  of  Illinois  as  young  men  and  engaged  there  in  the  practice 
of  law.  They  were  alike,  too,  in  their  intense  ambition  to  make 
a  name  for  themselves  in  politics.  But  here  the  resemblance 
ceased.  While  Douglas  had  been  phenomenally  successful,  a 

1  In  1861  Kansas  was  admitted  to  the  Union  as  a  free  state. 

2  A  great  part  of  Douglas's  fortune  had  been  swept  away  by  a  severe  financial 
panic  which  came  upon  the  country  in  1857,  as  the  result  of  overconfidence  in 
the  prosperity  of  the  early  fifties  and  too  sanguine  investments  in  Western  farms 
and  railways. 


400  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

national  figure  in  the.  United  States  Senate  for  over  a  decade, 
and  twice  a  serious  competitor  for  the  Democratic  presidential 
nomination,  Lincoln's  national  honors  had  been  limited  to  one 
inconspicuous  term  as  a  Whig  member  of  Congress  and  no 
votes  for  the  vice-presidential  nomination  in  the  Republican 
convention  of  1856.  In  appearance,  temper,  and  character  the 
two  men  were  exact  opposites  :  Lincoln  ludicrously  tall  and 
lanky,  awkward,  reflective,  and  slow  in  speech  and  motion ; 
Douglas  scarcely  five  feet  in  height,  thickset,  agile,  volcanic  in 
utterance,  impetuous  in  gesture ;  Lincoln  undeviatingly  honest 
in  thought,  making  his  speech  always  the  servant  of  his  reason ; 
Douglas,  in  his  brilliancy  of  rhetoric,  often  confusing  the  moral 
principle  for  the  sake  of  making  the  legal  point. 

586.  Lin-  Somewhat  disheartened  by  his  lack  of  success,  Lincoln  was 
tion'onP°SI      losing  interest  in  politics,  when  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Corn- 
slavery          promise  again  roused  him.    In  a  speech  at  Peoria,  Illinois,  in 

October,  185  4,  he  warned  Douglas  that  his  doctrine  would  "  bring 
Yankees  and  Missourians  into  clash  over  slavery  in  Kansas,"  and 
with  prophetic  vision  asked,  "  Will  not  the  first  drop  of  blood  so 
shed  be  the  knell  of  the  Union  ? "  He  joined  the  new  Republi 
can  party,  and  soon  rose  to  be  its  recognized  leader  in  Illinois. 
When  the  Republican  state  convention  nominated  him  for  the 
senatorship  in  June,  1858,  he  addressed  the  delegates  in  a  mem 
orable  speech:  "In  my  opinion  it  [the  slavery  agitation]  will  not 
cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have  been  reached  and  passed.  A  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this  government 
cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not 
expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved;  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to 
fall ;  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become 
all  one  thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery 
will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it  ...  or  its  advocates  will  push 
it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  states." 

587.  The  Lincoln  challenged  Douglas  to  a  series  of  debates  before  the 
Douglas  de-    people  of  Illinois  on  the  respective  merits  of  the  Democratic 
bates,  1858     doctrine   of    popular    sovereignty    in    the    territories    and    the 


Approaching  the  Crisis  401 

Republican  doctrine  of  the  control  of  slavery  in  the  territories 
by  Congress.  The  seven  remarkable  debates  which  followed  in 
various  parts  of  the  state  were  the  feature  of  the  campaign. 
In  them  the  prediction  of  Douglas  that  the  battle  of  slavery 
would  be  fought  out  on  the  Western  plains  was  fulfilled  in  a 
way  he  little  suspected  when  he  made  it.  The  contest  was  not 
merely  over  a  seat  in  the  Senate.  It  was  a  great  struggle, 
watched  with  interest  by  the  whole  country,  between  two 
moral  and  political  issues  of  immense  importance  :  first,  whether 
one  man  might  dare  say  another  man  is  not  his  equal  in  the 
right  to  earn  his  bread  in  labor  as  he  sees  fit ;  and  second, 
__,,_  rr-^T^,  wnetner  the  government 

u  "  of  the  United  States  was 

the  servant  of  the  slave 
power  or  its  master. 

In  the  debate  at  Free-  588.  The 
port,  Lincoln's  merciless 
logic    brought    Douglas 
straight  to  the  point  of 
the  campaign.  The  Dred 

Scott     decision,     which 
Tablet  marking  the  Site  of  the  First 

Lincoln-Douglas  Debate  Douglas    accepted     and 

defended,  declared  it  un- 

[  constitutional  for  the  national  government  to  exclude  slavery 
from  the  territories ;  while  by  the  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty 
Congress  conferred  on  a  territory  the  right  to  decide  the  ques 
tion  of  slavery  for  itself.  But,  asked  Lincoln,  how  could  a  terri 
tory  forbid  slavery  when  Congress  itself  could  not  ?  The  territory 
was  the  creation  of  Congress.  Did  it  have  more  power  than  the 
Congress  which  created  it  ?  Could  water  rise  above  its  source  ? 
The  question  brought  the  answer  Lincoln  wanted.  Douglas 
still  defended  popular  sovereignty,  maintaining  that  legislation 
hostile  to  slavery  by  the  people  of  the  territory  would  make  the 
territory  free  soil  in  spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  The 
latter  was  only  negative,  prohibiting  Congress  to  forbid  slavery  ; 


4O2  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

the  legislation  of  the  people  of  the  territory  was  positive,  estab 
lishing  or  prohibiting  slavery  as  they  saw  fit.1 

589.  The  Douglas  won  the  senatorship  by  the  narrow  margin  of  eight 
radicals  re-  votes.  But  his  "  Freeport  doctrine  "  of  the  power  of  the  people  of 
Douglas  a  territory  to  exclude  slavery  by  "  hostile  legislation  "  cost  him  the 
presidency  two  years  later.  The  Southern  radicals,  already  in 
censed  by  the  defeat  of  the  Lecompton  Constitution  in  Kansas, 
now  rejected  Douglas  completely.  They  demanded  that  Con 
gress  should  interfere  positively  to  protect  slavery  in  the 
territories,  even  against  the  hostile  legislation  of  the  territory 
itself.  "  Would  you  have  Congress  protect  slaves  any  more  than 
any  other  property  in  the  territories  ? "  asked  Douglas  of  Jefferson 
Davis.  "  Yes,"  replied  Davis,  "  because  slaves  are  the  only 
property  the  North  will  try  to  take  from  us  in  the  territories." 
"  You  will  not  carry  a  state  north  of  the  Ohio  River  on  such  a 
platform,"  cried  Douglas.  "  And  you  could  not  get  the  vote  of 
Mississippi  on  yours,"  answered  Davis.  The  Democratic  party 
was  hopelessly  divided.  Douglas  had  railed  at  the  "  abolitionist" 
Republican  party  as  "  sectional."  Now  he  and  his  followers  were 
accused  of  the  same  fault  by  the  administration  of  Buchanan  and  i 
the  radical  Southern  leaders.  He  woke  finally  to  the  realization 
that  his  efforts  to  hold  the  Northern  and  Southern  wings  of  the 
Democratic  party  together  on  the  compromise  doctrine  of  pop 
ular  sovereignty  were  vain.  Every  concession  to  the  slaveholders 
was  only  the  basis  of  a  new  demand.  Lincoln  was  right.  The 
house  was  divided  against  itself. 

REFERENCES 

The  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  and  the  Formation  of  the  Repub 
lican  Party:  T.  C.  SMITH,  Parties  and  Slavery  (American  Nation 
Series),  chaps,  vii,  viii;  J.  F.  RHODES,  History  of  the  United  States 
from  the  Compromise  of  1830,  Vol.  I,  chap,  v ;  Vol.  II,  chap,  vii ;  J.  G. 
NICOLAY,  Life  of  Lincoln,  chap,  vii;  HENRY  WILSON,  Rise  and  Fall  of 

1  Lincoln  neatly  paraphrased  this  "  Freeport  doctrine  "  of  Douglas  in  a  speech 
at  Columbus  a  year  later  :  "  Then  a  thing  may  be  legally  driven  away  from  a  place 
where  it  has  a  legal  right  to  be." 


Approaching  the  Crisis  4° 3 

the  Slave  Power,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xxx,  xxxi ;  J.  W.  BURGESS,  The  Middle 
Period  chap,  xix  ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by,  Contemforanes, 
Vol  IV  Nos  34,  35;  H.  VON  HOLST,  Constitutional  History  of  the 
United  States,  Vol.  V,  chaps,  i,  ii ;  WILLIAM  MACDONALD,  Select  Docu 
ments  of  United  States  History,  1776-1861,  Nos.  85-88;  EDWARD 
STANWOOD,  History  of  the  Presidency,  chap,  xx ;  ALLEN  JOHNSON, 
Stephen  Arnold  Douglas,  chaps,  xi-xiv. 

«  Bleeding  Kansas  »  :  SMITH,  chaps,  ix,  xi,  xii ;  HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos. 
,6-39;   RHODES,  Vol.   II,  pp.  98-107,   150-168;  BURGESS,  chap,  xx; 
WHSON    Vol.  II,  chaps,  xxxv-xxxvii ;  VON  HOLST,  Vol.  V,  chaps,  m, 
vi  vii-  JAMES  SCHOULER,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  V,  chap, 
xxi-  J   D   RICHARDSON,  Papers  and  Messages  of  the  Presidents,  Vol.  V, 
PP.  352-36°.  390-391,  401-407,  449-454,  471-481 ;  W.  E.  B.  DuBois, 
John  Brown,  chaps,  vi-viii ;  CHARLES  ROBINSON,  The  Kansas  Conflict, 
chaps,  v-xiii;  L.  W.  SPRING,  Kansas,  chaps,  ii-ix ;   also  The  Career  of 
a  Kansas  Politician  (American  Historical  Review,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  80-104). 
«  A  House  divided  against  Itself  »  :  SMITH,  chaps,  xiv-xvh  ;  BURGESS, 
chaps,  xxi,  xxii ;  JOHNSON,  chaps,  xv-xvii;  HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  40-45  ; 
WILSON,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xxxix-xliii;  RHODES,  Vol.11,  chap,  ix;  NICOLAY, 
chaps,   viii,   ix;  J.  T.  MORSE,  JR.,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Vol.  I,  chap,  v ; 
A    ROTHSCHILD,  Lincoln,  Master  of  Men,  chap,  iii ;  Old  South  Leaf 
lets,  No.  85;  C.  E.  MERRIAM,  American  Political  Theories,  chap,  vi; 
MACDONALD,  Nos.  91,  93  5  ROBINSON,  chaps,  xiv-xvii ;  VON  HOLST, 
Vol    VI,   chaps,  i-vii;  SAMUEL  TYLER,  Memoir  of  Robert  B.   Taney, 
chap,  v;  HORACE  GREELEY,    The  American    Conflict,  Vol.   I,   chaps, 
xvii-xix. 

TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  The  Birth  of  the  Republican  Party  :  G.  W.  JULIAN,  Personal  Recol 
lections,   pp.    134-150;    STANWOOD,   pp.    258-278;    T.    K.    LOTHROP, 
William  //.  Seward,  pp.    142-161  ;  RHODES,  Vol.  II,  pp.  45~5O,  i?7~ 
185;  SCHOULER,  Vol.  V,  pp.  301-308,  349~357;  A.  C.  MCLAUGHLIN, 
Lewis  Cass,  pp.  293-32 1  ;  FRANCIS  CURTIS,  The  Republican  Party,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  172-234;  JOHNSON,  pp.  260-280. 

2.  Industrial  Prosperity  in  the  Fifties:    SMITH,  pp.   59~745   E.  L. 
BOGART,  Economic  History  of  the  United  States,  pp.  206-215,  222-226, 
238-249 ;   D.   R.   DEWEY,  Financial  History  of  the  United  States,  pp. 
248-274;   C.   D.   WRIGHT,   Industrial  Evolution  of  the   United  States, 
pp.  133-142;  EDWARD  INGLE,  Southern  Sidelights,  pp.  55-66,  88-94; 
W.   G.   BROWN,    The  Lower  South   in   American   History,  pp.   32-49; 
RHODES,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  1-56;   G.  S.  CALLENDER,   Readings  in  the  Eco- 

•  History  of  the  United  States,  pp.  738~793- 


nomic 


404  Thv  Crisis  of  Disunion 

3.  The  Personal-Liberty  Laws:  HART,  Vol.  IV,  No.  33;  WILSON, 
Vol.  II,  pp.  50-60 ;  VON  HOLST,  Vol.  V,  pp.  65-70 ;  MARION  G.  MAC- 
DOUGALL,  Fugitive  Slaves  (Fay  House  Monographs);  T.  W.  HIGGIN- 
SON,    Cheerful   Yesterdays,  pp.  132-166;  NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  a  History,  Vol.  Ill,   pp.  17-34;   J-  J-  LALOR,   Cyclopedia  of 
Political  Science,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.   162-163. 

4.  Criticisms  of  the  Bred  Scott  Decision  :  HART,  Vol.  IV,  No.  43 ; 
TYLER,  pp.  373-400;  RHODES,  Vol.  II,  pp.  257-270;  G.  T.  CURTIS, 
Memoir  of  B.  R.   Curtis,  Vol.  I,  pp.  211-251;  J.  G.  ELAINE,  Twenty 
Years  of  Congress,  Vol.  I,  pp.  131-137;  GREELEY,  pp.  255-264;  LALOR, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  838-841. 

5.  Antislavery  Poems :  LUCY  LARCOM,  Call  to  Kanzas  (HART,  Vol. 
IV,  No.  37);  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT,  The  Prairies,  The  Call  to  Arms; 
JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL,  The  Present  Crisis,  The  Biglow  Papers ;  JOHN 
GREENLEAF  WHITTIER,  Expostiilation,  The  Farewell,  Massachusetts  to 
Virginia,    The   Kansas    Emigrants,   Burial  of  Barber,    The  Panorama, 
Brown  of  Ossawatomie. 


CHAPTER  XV 

SECESSION 

THE  ELECTION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

When  the  presidential  year  1860  opened,  the  antislavery  590.  The 
cause  seemed  to  be  defeated  at  every  point.  There  was  hardly 
a  claim  of  the  South  in  the  contest  of  forty  years  since  the 
Missouri  Compromise  of  1820  that  had  not  been  yielded  by 
the  North  for  the  sake  of  securing  peace  and  preserving  the 
Union.  Congress,  which  in  1820  had  excluded  slavery  from 
the  larger  part  of  the  Western  territory  of  the  United  States  by 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  had  by  the  Compromise  of  1850 
substituted  the  principle  of  noninterference  with  slavery  in  the 
territories,  and  by  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  of  1854  repealed 
the  Missouri  Compromise  outright.  All  the  territories  of  the 
United  States  except  Oregon  were  thenceforth  open  to  slavery. 
A  stringent  fugitive-slave  law  had  been  enacted  by  Congress 
(1850).  The  judicial  branch  of  the  government  had,  by  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  joined  the  legislative  branch  in  sanctioning 
the  "peculiar  institution  "  of  the  South,  declaring  that  Congress 
had  no  power  to  interfere  with  the  property  (i.e.  the  slaves) 
of  the  citizens  of  any  of  the  states  in  any  part  of  the  Union 
(1857).  And  finally,  the  executive  branch  of  the  government 
had  been  inclined,  like  the  legislative  and  judicial  branches, 
to  a  favorable  attitude  toward  slavery.  Not  one  of  the  five 
Northern  Presidents  since  Jackson's  day  (Van  Buren,  Harrison, 
Fillmore,  Pierce,  Buchanan)  had  shown  the  slightest  hostility 
toward  slavery  while  in  the  White  House,  and  the  last  two  had 
been  completely  dominated  by  Jefferson  Davis  and  the  other 
radical  proslavery  statesmen. 

405 


406  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

591.  slavery       In  the  Southern  states  the  institution  of  slavery  seemed  fixed 
on  the  South    beyond  any  power  to  disturb  it.    The  slaves  had  increased  from 

2,000,000  in  1820  to  nearly  4,000,000  in  1860;  yet  the  con 
stantly  increasing  demand  for  cotton  in  the  mills  of  England 
and  the  North  made  the  supply  of  slaves  inadequate.  The 
same  quality  of  negro  that  sold  for  $400  in  1820  brought 
$1200  to  $1500  in  1860.  Why  pay  $1500  apiece  in  Virginia 
for  slaves  that  could  be  bought  for  $600  in  Cuba,  and  for  less 
than  $100  in  Africa?  said  the  Mississippi  planter.  A  conven 
tion  of  the  cotton-raising  states  at  Vicksburg  in  May,  1859, 
carried  by  a  vote  of  40  to  19  the  resolution  that  "all  laws, 
state  or  federal,  prohibiting  the  African  slave  trade  ought  to  be 
repealed."  Cargoes  of  slaves  were  landed  at  Southern  ports  in 
almost  open  defiance  of  the  law  of  1807  prohibiting  the  foreign 
slave  trade.1 

592.  John  The  slight  opposition  to  slavery  and  to  the  strict  laws  for 
at  Harpers       the  coercion  of  the  negro  that  still  existed  in  the  South  was 

°t0~  killed  by  an  unfortunate  event  in  the  autumn  of  1859.  John 
Brown,  whose  fanatical  deed  of  murder  in  Kansas  we  have 
,  already  described  (p.  391),  felt  that  he  was  commissioned  by 
God  to  free  the  slaves  in  the  South.  He  conceived  the  wild  plan 
of  posting  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains 
small  bodies  of  armed  men,  who  should  make  descents  into  the. 
plains,  seize  negroes,  and  conduct  them  back  to  his  "  camps  of 
freedom."  He  made  a  beginning  at  the  little  Virginia  town  of 
Harpers  Ferry,  at  the  junction  of  the  Potomac  and  Shenandoah 
rivers,  where  with  only  eighteen  men  he  seized  the  United 

1  In  1859  the  yacht  Wanderer  landed  300  slaves,  brought  direct  from  the 
African  coast,  at  Brunswick,  Georgia.  They  were  distributed  as  far  as  Memphis, 
Tennessee.  The  owner  and  the  captain  of  the  vessel  were  indicted  on  a  charge  of 
breaking  the  federal  law  of  1807,  but  no  Southern  jury  could  be  found  to  convict 
them,  and  they  went  free.  Douglas  said  that  15,000  slaves  were  imported  in  the 
last  years  of  the  decade  1850-1860.  What  a  contrast  to  the  attitude  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  who  wrote  in  his  presidential  message  of  December,  1806,  "  I  con 
gratulate  you,  fellow  citizens,  on  the  approach  of  the  period  at  which  you  may 
[prohibit]  all  further  violations  of  human  rights,  which  have  so  long  been  con 
tinued  on  the  unoffending  inhabitant  of  Africa,  and  which  the  morality,  the 
reputation,  and  the  best  interests  of  our  country  have  long  been  eager  to  proscribe." 


Secession 


407 


States  armory,  and,  raiding  the  houses  of  a  few  of  the  neigh 
boring  planters,  forcibly  freed  about  thirty  of  their  slaves. 
There  was  no  response  on  the  part  of  the  negroes  to  John 
Brown's  raid  in  their  behalf.  They  were  huddled  together  with 
his  men  in  the  armory,  rather  bewildered,  and  more  like  captives 
than  newly  baptized  freemen,  when  a  detachment  of  United 


United  States  Marines  storming  the  Arsenal  at  Harpers  Ferry 

States  marines  from  Washington  arrived  on  the  scene  and  cap 
tured  Brown's  band  after  a  short,  sharp  struggle  (October  17, 
1859).  Brown,  severely  wounded,  was  tried  for  treason  by  the 
laws  of  Virginia.  He  pleaded  only  his  divine  commission  for 
his  defense,  and  was  speedily  condemned  and  hanged. 

The  South  was  persuaded  that  John  Brown's  attempt  to  in-  593.  Effect 
cite  the  negroes  to  revolt  was  backed  by  influential  men  at  the  ontheSouth 
North,  especially  when  Brown  was  hailed  as  a  martyr  by  thou 
sands   of  antislavery  men  who  were  jubilant  to   see  a  blow 


408  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

struck  for  freedom,  even  if  it  were  a  murderous  blow.1  From 
the  day  of  John  Brown's  raid  many  thousands  in  the  South 
were  persuaded  that  the  "  Black  Republicans "  were  deter 
mined  to  let  loose  upon  their  wives  and  children  the  horrors 
of  negro  massacre. 

594.  The  Early  in   February,   1860,  Jefferson  Davis  brought  into  the 
Davis  reso- 

lutions,  Feb-  Senate  a  set  of  resolutions  containing  the  demands  of  the  South. 

ruary  2, 18  Douglas's  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  was  entirely  repu 
diated.  Congress  must  protect  slavery  in  every  part  of  the  terri 
tory  of  the  United  States ;  for  the  territories  were  the  common 
possession  of  the  states  of  the  Union,  open  to  the  citizens  of  all 
the  states  with  all  their  property.  The  Northern  states  must 
repeal  their  Personal-Liberty  laws,  and  cease  to  interfere  with 
the  thoroughgoing  execution  of  the  Fugitive-Slave  Law  of  1850. 
The  Dred  Scott  decision  must  be  respected,  and  no  attempt 
be  made  by  Congress  to  trespass  on  the  exclusive  right  of  the 
states  to  regulate  slavery  for  themselves.  These  extreme  pro- 
slavery  resolutions,  which  demanded  everything  but  the  actual 
introduction  of  slavery  into  the  free  states  of  the  North,  were 
intended  as  a  platform  for  the  Democratic  party  in  the  approach 
ing  convention  for  the  choice  of  a  presidential  candidate. 

595.  Lin-  At  the  close  of  the  same  month  of  February,  1860,  Abraham 
coin's  speech     T  .        ,  ....  .,     .       _. 

in  the  Cooper   Lincoln,  at  the  invitation  of  the  Republicans  of  the  Eastern 

states>  delivered  a  notable  speech  in  the  hall  of  the  Cooper 
Union,  New  York  City.  Since  the  debates  with  Douglas  in 
1858,  Lincoln  had  been  recognized  in  the  West  as  the  leading 
man  of  the  Republican  party,  but  before  the  Cooper  Union 
speech  the  East  did  not  accord  him  a  place  beside  Seward  and 

1  The  tense  feeling  in  the  North  led  many  men  of  note  to  indorse  John 
Brown's  deed  in  words  of  extravagant  praise.  Theodore  Parker  declared  that 
his  chances  for  earthly  immortality  were  double  those  of  any  other  man  of  the 
century  ;  and  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  even  compared  the  hanging  of  John  Brown 
with  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  funds  and  firearms  for  Brown's  expe 
dition  of  course  came  from  the  North,  but  the  men  who  contributed  them  (with 
perhaps  one  or  two  exceptions)  thought  they  were  to  be  used  in  Kansas  and  not 
for  a  raid  in  the  state  of  Virginia.  John  Brown's  deed  at  Harpers  Ferry,  like 
his  deed  at  the  Pottawatomie,  deserves  only  condemnation. 


Secession  4°9 

Sumner.  His  clothes  were  ill-fitting,  his  voice  was  high  and 
thin,  his  gestures  were  awkward  as  he  stood  before  the  cultured 
audience  of  New  York ;  but  all  these  things  were  forgotten  as 
he  proceeded  with  accurate  historical  knowledge,  keen  argu 
ment,  lucid  exposition,  and  great  charity  to  expound  the  posi 
tion  of  the  Republican  party  on  the  issue  of  slavery.  He 
showed  that  a  majority  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  had  voted  for  the  restriction  of  slavery;  that 
Congress  had  repeatedly  legislated  to  control  slavery  in  the 
territories  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the  South  had  accepted 
and  even  voted  for  the  laws ;  that  no  particle  of  proof  could 
be  adduced  to  show  that  the  Republican  party  or  any  member 
of  it  had  anything  to  do  with  John  Brown's  raid  at  Harpers 
Ferry;  that  the  talk  of  the  Southerners  about  the  disasters 
which  the  election  of  a  Republican  president  would  bring  upon 
them  was  the  product  of  their  own  imagination ;  and  that  the 
threats  of  the  South  to  break  up  the  Union  in  case  of  such 
an  election  were  simply  the  argument  of  the  highway  robber. 
He  concluded  by  a  ringing  appeal  to  the  men  of  the  North  to 
stand  by  their  principles  in  the  belief  that  right  makes  might. 
The  speech  was  not  a  formal  reply  to  Davis's  resolutions,  but  it 
served  as  such.  It  was  a  clear  statement  of  the  Republican 
doctrine  that,  in  spite  of  the  opinion  of  Chief  Justice  Taney, 
Congress  had  full  power  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the  territories. 
The  speech  made  Lincoln  a  serious  candidate  for  the  Repub 
lican  nomination  for  President. 

The  great  conventions   of   1860,   which  were  to  nominate  595.  The 
candidates  for  the  most  important  presidential  election  in  our  Democratk; 
history,  began  with  the  meeting  of  the  Democratic  delegates  at  convention  at 

Pti3.rlGston 

Charleston,  South  Carolina,  April  23.  It  was  evident  that  the  April,  1860' 
struggle  in  the  Democratic  convention  would  be  between  the 
Douglas  men  and  the  supporters  of  the  Davis  resolutions.  The 
Douglas  platform  won  by  a  margin  of  about  thirty  votes,  where 
upon  the  Alabama  delegation,  led  by  William  L.  Yancey,  for  ten 
years  an  ardent  advocate  of  secession,  marched  out  of  the  hall. 


410  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

The  Alabama  delegates  were  followed  by  those  of  five  other 
cotton  states,  the  chairmen  of  these  delegations  bidding  their 
fellow  Democrats  farewell  "  in  valedictories  which  seemed  ad 
dressed  less  to  the  convention  than  to  the  Union."  Glenn  of 
Mississippi,  pale  with  suppressed  emotion,  declared,  "  In  sixty 
days  you  will  see  a  united  South  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder !  " 
In  refusing  to  abide  by  the  vote  of  the  regular  Democratic 
convention  supporting  Douglas's  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty 
(which  of  course  meant  the  nomination  of  Douglas  for  President), 
the  extreme  proslavery  men  of  the  South  deliberately  split  the 
Democratic  party  and  thereby  made  probable  the  election  of 
the  Republican  candidate.  It  was  the  reckless  deed  of  men 
who  were  determined  to  listen  to  no  further  discussion  of  their 
demands  for  the  recognition  of  slavery  as  a  right,  —  a  moral, 
social,  and  political  right.  Alexander  Stephens  of  Georgia,  per 
haps  the  ablest  statesman  of  the  South,  said  that  within  a 
twelvemonth  of  the  disruption  of  the  Democratic  convention 
at  Charleston  the  nation  would  be  engaged  in  a  bloody  civil 
war.  And  so  it  was. 

The  two  wings  of  the  Democratic  party  reassembled  in  June 
at  Baltimore.  The  "regulars "nominated  Douglas,  and  the  rad 
ical  proslavery  "  bolters  "  nominated  John  C.  Breckinridge  of 
Kentucky,  Vice  President  during  Buchanan's  term. 

597.  The  Re-  Meanwhile  the  Republican  convention  had  met  in  Chicago 
ventionnat°n~  (May  16)  in  a  huge  structure  called  the  "Wigwam."  Ten 
ChlCgg0)May  thousand  people  packed  the  building,  while  outside  tens  of 
thousands  more  were  breathlessly  waiting  in  hopes  to  hear  that 
the  favorite  son  of  the  West,  "  honest  Abe  "  Lincoln,  the  "  rail- 
splitter,"  had  been  chosen  to  lead  the  party  to  victory.  The 
delegates  adopted  a  platform  asserting  the  right  and  duty  of 
Congress  to  prohibit  the  further  spread  of  slavery  into  the 
territories  of  the  United  States.  They  condemned  Buchanan's 
administration  for  its  encouragement  of  the  Lecompton  fraud, 
demanded  the  immediate  admission  of  Kansas  as  a  free  state, 
and  denounced  the  opinion  of  Taney  in  the  Dred  Scott  case. 


Secession  4 1 1 

When  the  convention  met,  Senator  Seward  of  New  York  598.  The 
was  considered  the  leading  candidate  for  the  Republican  nomi-  Abraham 
nation,  which  he  himself  confidently  expected.  Other  aspirants  Lincoln 
for  the  honor  were  Chase  of  Ohio,  Bates  of  Missouri,  Cameron 
of  Pennsylvania,  Smith  of  Indiana,  and  Lincoln  of  Illinois. 
Seward  led  on  the  first  ballot,  but  he  could  not  command  the 
233  votes  necessary  for  nomination.  He  was  suspected  in 
some  states  of  being  intimately  allied  with  the  abolitionists, 
and  in  others  of  being  too  closely  connected  with  the  political 
machine  in  New  York  state.  His  vote  remained  nearly  sta 
tionary,  while  delegation  after  delegation  went  over  to  Lincoln. 
On  the  third  ballot  Lincoln  was  nominated  and  the  convention 
went  wild.  Pandemonium  reigned  within  the  hall,  while  cannon 
boomed  without.  Men  shouted  and  danced  and  marched  and 
sang.  They  hugged  and  kissed  each  other,  they  wept,  they 
fainted  for  joy.  Seward,  although  his  friends  were  stunned 
with  disappointment,  showed  his  nobility  of  character  and  his 
devotion  to  the  Republican  cause  by  an  instant  and  hearty 
support  of  Abraham  Lincoln.1 

There  was  a  fourth  ticket  in  the  field,  headed  by  John  Bell  599.  The 
of  Tennessee  and  supported  by  the  old  Whigs  and  Union  men  tiona/ union 
in  the  South,  especially  in  the  border  states.    Their  platform  party 
was  silent  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  simply  declaring  "  for  the 
maintenance    of   the    Union    and    the    Constitution,    and    the 
enforcement   of   the    laws." 

In  the  election  on  the  sixth  of  November  Lincoln  carried  all  600.  Lin- 
the  Northern  states  except  New  Jersey,  receiving  180  electoral  ti°on',Novem- 
votes.    Douglas  got  only  12  electoral  votes,  from  Missouri  and  ber6'  l86° 
New  Jersey.    Bell  carried  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Virginia, 
with  39  votes.    And  Breckinridge  got  the  72  votes  of  the  rest 

1  Seward's  disappointment  is  expressed  in  a  letter  to  his  wife,  written  May  30, 
1860 :  "  I  am  a  leader  deposed  by  my  own  party  in  the  hour  of  organization  for 
decisive  battle."  Lincoln  recognized  Seward's  valuable  support  and  great  gifts 
when  he  bestowed  on  him  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State.  The  other  aspirants 
for  the  nomination,  Chase,  Smith,  Bates,  and  Cameron,  also  received  places  in 
Lincoln's  first  cabinet. 


412 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


of  the  Southern  states.  But  the  electoral  vote  does  not  tell  the 
story  of  the  election.  Douglas  polled  a  very  large  popular  vote 
in  all  the  states  of  the  North  (see  map).  He  received  1,370,- 
ooo  votes  to  Lincoln's  1,860,000,  and  would  have  easily  won 

with  the  support  of  the  united 

CHARLESTON  Democratic  party.     He  was 

repudiated  by  the  adminis 
tration  of  Buchanan  and  by 
the  radical  slavery  leaders  of 


MERCURY 


EXTRA: 


the  South,  yet  he  received 
nearly  twice  as  many  votes 
(1,370,000  to  840,000)  as 
their  candidate,  Breckinridge. 
It  was  a  wonderful  testimony 
to  his  personal  and  political 
hold  on  his  countrymen. 
Again,  although  Lincoln  re 
ceived  1 80  electoral  votes  to 
123  for  Douglas,  Bell,  and 
Breckinridge  combined,  his 
popular  vote  was  only  1,860,- 
ooo  to  2,810,000  cast  against 
him.1  He  was  the  choice  of 
less  than  half  the  voters  of 
the  country,  —  a  fact  which 
goes  far  to  explain  his  cau 
tious,  conciliatory  conduct  in 
office.  Finally,  the  election 
showed  that  the  South  as  a 

whole  was  not  in  favor  of  secession  in  1860.  For  Douglas  and 
Bell,  both  stanch  Union  men,  polled  135,000  votes  more  than 
Breckinridge  in  the  slave  states. 

1  The  electoral  system  of  choice  of  President  may  fail  to  show  the  popular 
choice.  The  candidate  who  receives  most  votes  (a  plurality)  in  any  state  gets  all 
the  electoral  votes  of  that  state,  though  his  opponents  combined  may  poll  more 
than  double  his  vote,  as  Lincoln's  opponents  did  in  California  and  Oregon. 


AH  ORDIXt AC  E 

To  dltiolrt  lltt  (Man  bttutm  the  Stall  if  SouiA  Carolina 
other  State,  uulted  vUh  lor  uiuttr  Iht  compact  mtUled  " 
Cumulation  If  the  Inttxl  Statci  of  JnuHoa." 

Wr.  Ox  Papx  o/O,  SU^fS^U  Onfe*  «  Ctwab*  u^mtM.  to  dxlm  «/,** 
•  *Mr*M«*«Ml4 

AUIIU  Ordia»K«  doom!  bj  M  In  Co»«<«Uon,.o»  Ih.  lwentj.lhlid  <Uj  of  JU7, 
,«,  «t ra  Lord  on.  Ihomut..™  hmdrxl  Ml.lgkt^gkl,  rt«r.b,  U>.  ComWulio.  . 
Calm  8l>M  of  Aaetiu  ru  t»tia=d,  ud  «!»,  >Q  Acu  ud  puti  if  leu  of  <h»  0, 

AneuMr  of  ILil  Bute.  nUf;mg  uaendmeiu  of  the  «id  CuniUliitui,  >ra  o.ttb,  npe 
Ud  Hit  lh«  loici  dow  inUuling  Ixlinn  Soldi  dnliu  ud  olliu  Suw,  uJer  t!»  «u» 
«  Tk.  Doited  St»tei  o(  Aaeiiot,*  U  benb;  diuoivtt 


UNION 

DISSOLVED! 

Facsimile  of  the  Ordinance  of 
Secession 


Popular  Electoral 

Vote  Vote 

Lincoln               1,866,452  180 

Breckenridge       849,781  72 

Hl'Bell                          588,879  39 

Douglas              1,376,957  12 


L.L.  POATES  ENS.  CO.,  N.Y. 


The  Presid* 


[7        ^ 

7C109  //  \S/...     -U«l\\       I    1 

V'n»0."2ti>   !l!>i'>-'>v' ,  \   \ 
.iS>01 


ion  of  1860 


Secession 


413 


'  *>   t 


The  legislature  of  South  Carolina  was  in  session  when  the  601.  The 
election  of  Lincoln  was  announced.    It  had  met  to  choose  the  Southcaro- 
presidential  electors  for  the  state,1  and  after  choosing  Breckin- 
ridge  electors  it  had  voted  to  remain  in  session  until  the  result 
of  the  election  was  knowji,  threatening  to  advise  the  secession 
of  the  state  in  case  the  "  Black  Republican "  candidate  were 
successful.     It  now  im 
mediately  called  a  con 
vention  of  the  state  to 
meet  the  next  month  to 
carry  out  its  threat  of  se 
cession.  On  the  twentieth 
of    December   the    con 
vention  met  at  Charles 
ton  and  carried,  by  the 
unanimous   vote   of   its 
169  members,  the  reso 
lution  that  "  the  Union 
now  subsisting  between 
South  Carolina  and  the 
other  states,  under  the 
name  of  the  United  States 
of  America,    is    hereby 
dissolved."     The    ordi 


BUILT     _.fROM        THE       RUIN», 


Secession  Banner  displayed  in  the  South 

Carolina  Convention 
nance  of  secession  was 

met  with  demonstrations  of  joy  by  the  people  of  South  Carolina. 
The  city  of  Charleston  was  decked  with  the  palmetto  flag  of  the 
state.  Salvos  of  artillery  were  fired,  houses  were  draped  with 
blue  bunting,  and  the  bells  were  rung  in  a  hundred  churches. 
The  ancient  commonwealth  of  South  Carolina,  after  many 
threats  and  warnings,  had  at  last  "  resumed  "  its  position  as  a 
free  and  independent  state. 

1  South  Carolina  was  the  only  state  in  1860  that  continued  the  custom,  common 
in  the  early  days  of  our  history  to  most  of  the  states,  of  choosing  presidential 
electors  by  vote  of  the  legislature.  In  all  the  other  states  they  had  come  to  be 
chosen  by  vote  of  the  people. 


414 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


THE  SOUTHERN  CONFEDERACY 

602.  The  for-       Within  six  weeks  after  the  secession  of  South  Carolina  the 

mation  of  the  .     .     . 

Southern         states  of  Mississippi,  Florida,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Georgia,  and 

February^'    Texas  had  severed  their  connection  with  the  Union.    Delegates 
1861  from    these    seven   "  sovereign   states "   met  at  Montgomery, 

Alabama,  February  4,  1861, 


and  organized  a  new  Con 
federacy.  Jefferson  Davis 
of  Mississippi  was  chosen 
president,  and  Alexander  H. 
Stephens,  of  Georgia,  vice 
president.  A  constitution 
was  drawn  up  and  submitted 
to  the  people  of  the  Con 
federate  States  for  ratifica 
tion.  This  constitution  was 
very  similar  to  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States, 
except  that  slavery  was  ex 
pressly  sanctioned,  Congress 
was  forbidden  to  levy  pro 
tective  duties,  the  President 
was  elected  for  a  term  of 
six  years  without  eligibility 
for  reelection,  and  the  mem 
bers  of  the  cabinet  were  given  the  right  to  speak  on  the  floor 
of  Congress.1  A  Confederate  flag,  the  "  stars  and  bars,"  was 
adopted.  A  tax  of  one  eighth  of  a  cent  a  pound  on  exported 
cotton  was  levied.  President  Davis  was  authorized  to  raise  an 
army  of  100,000  men  and  secure  a  loan  of  $15,000,000,  and 

!The  Confederate  constitution  is  printed  in  parallel  columns  with  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  in  Wilson's  History  of  the  American  People, 
Vol.  IV,  Appendix.  Of  course,  the  Confederate  constitution  never  had  a  chance 
to  go  into  fair  operation,  as  the  Southern  Confederacy  was  overthrown  in  the 
great  Civil  War,  which  followed  immediately  upon  its  adoption. 


Facsimile  of  the  Confederate 
Constitution 


Secession  415 

a  committee  of  three,  with  the  impetuous  Yancey  of  Alabama  as 
chairman,  was  sent  abroad  to  secure  the  friendship  and  alliance 
of  European  courts.  Both  Davis  and  Stephens  believed  that 
the  South  would  have  to  fight  "  a  long  and  bloody  war "  to 
establish  their  independence. 

The  Southern  leaders  spoke  much  of  the  "  tyranny  "  of  the  603.  Lin- 
North,  and  compared  themselves  to  the  Revolutionary  fathers  tjon  no  jusj. 
of  1776,  who  wrested  their  independence  from  Great  Britain. 
But  the  simple  facts  of  the  case  warranted  no  such  language. 
A  perfectly  fair  election  in  November  had  resulted  in  the 
choice  of  a  Republican  for  President.  Abraham  Lincoln, 
although  he  believed  that  slavery  must  ultimately  disappear 
from  the  United  States,  had  given  repeated  assurances  to  the 
men  of  the  South  that  he  would  not  disturb  the  institution  in 
their  states,  and  that  he  was  even  in  favor  of  the  execution  of 
the  Fugitive-Slave  Law  of  1850,  the  violation  of  which  by  the 
Personal-Liberty  acts  of  the  Northern  states  was  the  one  real  • 
grievance  of  the  South.  Southern  statesmen  all  knew  that 
Abraham  Lincoln's  plighted  word  was  good.1  To  call  the  elec 
tion  of  such  a  man  with  such  a  program  an  invasion  of  the 
rights  of  the  South,  a  violation  of  the  Constitution,  or  "  an  insult 
that  branded  the  people  of  the  South  as  sinners  and  criminals  " 
was  absurd.  Besides,  as  Stephens  pointed  out  in  the  speech  by 
which  he  endeavored  to  restrain  Georgia  from  secession,  the 
Republicans  were  in  the  minority  in  both  branches  of  Congress, 
and  the  President,  even  if  inclined  to  "  invade  the  rights  of  the 
South,"  could  do  nothing  without  the  support  of  Congress.  In 

1  Lincoln  asked  the  senators  from  the  cotton  states  to  advise  their  people  to 
wait  before  seceding  until  "  some  act  deemed  violative  of  their  rights  was  done 
by  the  incoming  administration."  To  his  friend,  Alexander  H.  Stephens  of  Georgia, 
he  wrote  (December  22, 1860) :  "  Do  the  people  of  the  South  really  entertain  fears 
that  a  Republican  administration  would  directly  or  indirectly  interfere  with  their 
slaves  .  .  .  ?  If  they  do,  I  wish  to  assure  you  .  .  .  that  there  is  no  cause  for  such 
fears.  The  South  would  be  in  no  more  danger  in  this  respect  than  it  was  in  the 
days  of  Washington."  It  was  a  grave  mistake  of  Stephens  that  he  did  not  publish 
this  letter  until  after  Lincoln's  assassination,  though  even  this  assurance  would 
probably  not  have  held  the  Southern  states  back  from  secession. 


4 1 6  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

1856  the  Republicans,  defeated  at  the  polls,  had  peacefully 
acquiesced  in  the  election  of  a  President  who  favored  the  ex 
tension  of  slavery  in  the  territories.  In  1860,  victorious  in  the 
election  of  a  President  who  opposed  such  extension,  had  they 
not  the  right  to  expect  the  same  chivalrous  acquiescence  from 
their  opponents  ? 

604.  Buchan-  The  conduct  of  President  Buchanan  certainly  was  anything 
ness  in  the  but  "  tyrannical."  In  his  annual  message  of  December  4,  1860, 
sion  °f  seces"  when  it  was  almost  certain  that  South  Carolina  would  secede, 
he  declared  that  no  state  had  a  right  to  leave  the  Union.  Yet 
at  the  same  time  he  gave  the  secessionists  comfort  by  adding 
that  the  government  of  the  United  States  had  no  legal  means 
of  compelling  a  state  to  remain  in  the  Union.  He  made  no 
attempt  to  restrain  South  Carolina  when  that  state  seceded  and 
seized  property  of  the  United  States  (public  buildings,  arsenal, 
forts)  within  her  borders.  He  allowed  her  to  fire  the  guns  of  a 
battery  seized  from  the  United  States  at  a  ship  bearing  the  flag 
of  the  United  States,  and  made  no  protest.  He  saw  the  other 
six  cotton  states  secede  and  turn  over  the  forts  and  arsenals, 
the  troops  and  money1  of  the  United  States  to  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  without  raising  a  finger  to  prevent  it.  He  was  so 
anxious  to  avert  war,  or  at  least  to  ward  it  off  until  he  should 
have  surrendered  the  reins  of  government  into  the  hands  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  on  the  fourth  of  March,  1861,  that  he  lost 
even  the  respect  of  the  secessionists.  They  called  him  an  imbecile 
and  boasted  of  "  tying  his  hands."  He  did  not  even  have  the 
force  to  dismiss  from  his  cabinet  Secretaries  Floyd  and  Thomp 
son,  who  were  working  openly  for  the  cause  of  secession.  Had 
it  not  been  for  the  presence  in  the  cabinet  of  a  trio  of  stanch 
Unionists  (Black,  Holt,  and  Stanton),  President  Buchanan  would 
have  probably  yielded  to  the  demands  of  South  Carolina,  recog 
nized  her  as  an  independent  "  sovereign  state,"  abandoned  to 

1  The  state  of  Louisiana  received  a  special  vote  of  thanks  from  the  Confed 
erate  government  at  Montgomery  for  turning  over  to  it  $536,000  in  coin  seized  at 
the  United  States  mint  and  customhouse  in  New  Orleans. 


Secession  4*7 

her  the  forts  in  Charleston  harbor,  and  left  her  in  peaceful 
possession  of  the  property  of  the  United  States.1 

The  acts  of  the  Congress  which  sat  in  the  winter  of  1860-  605.  The 
1  86  1  gave  the  South  as  little  provocation  for  secession  as  did  amendments 


the  words  of  Lincoln  or  the  deeds  of  Buchanan.  Instead  of 
raising  armies  to  punish  South  Carolina,  or  expelling  the  mem-  1860 
bers  of  the  seceding  states  from  its  halls,  Congress  bent  its 
whole  effort  to  devising  a  plan  of  compromise  which  should 
keep  the  Union  intact.  The  venerable  Senator  J.  J.  Crittenden 
of  Kentucky,  the  successor  of  Henry  Clay,  proposed  a  series  of 
"unamendable  amendments"  to  the  Constitution  (December  18, 
1860),  restoring  the  Missouri-Compromise  line  of  36°  30' 
as  the  boundary  between  slave  territory  and  free  territory, 
pledging  the  United  States  government  to  pay  Southern  owners 
for  all  runaway  slaves  they  lost  through  nonenforcement  of  the 
Fugitive-Slave  Law  in  the  free  states,  and  forbidding  Congress 
ever  to  interfere  with  the  domestic  slave  trade  or  with  slavery 
in  the  states  where  it  was  established  by  law.  A  select  com 
mittee  of  thirteen  in  the  Senate,  including  the  leaders  of  public 
opinion  in  the  North  and  the  South  (Seward,  Douglas,  and  Davis), 
was  appointed  to  consider  the  Crittenden  amendments.  At  the 
same  time  a  committee  of  thirty-three  in  the  House  was  chosen 
to  work  also  at  the  problem  of  reconciliation. 

But  the  committees  failed  to  agree.  The  Republican  mem-  606.  The 
bers  refused  to  accept  the  line  36°  30'  or  any  other  line  dividing 
slaveholding  territories  from  free  territories.  Their  platform  amendments 
called  for  the  prohibition  by  Congress  of  slavery  in  all  the 
territories  of  the  United  States;  and  their  position  was  sup 
ported  by  President-elect  Lincoln,  who  wrote  to  Mr.  Kellogg, 
the  Illinois  member  of  the  House  committee,  "  Entertain  no 
proposition  for  the  extension  of  slavery."  Douglas  asserted  later 

1  What  a  contrast  to  President  Jackson's  determined  course  when  South 
Carolina  annulled  the  tariff  acts  in  1832  !  It  was  a  coincidence  that  it  was  to 
Buchanan  himself  (then  at  the  embassy  at  St.  Petersburg)  that  Jackson  wrote, 
"  I  have  met  nullification  at  the  threshold."  No  wonder  men  of  the  North  in  the 
closing  days  of  1860  cried,  "  O  for  one  hour  of  Andrew  Jackson  !  " 


41 8  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

that  both  of  the  extreme  proslavery  men  on  the  Senate  com 
mittee  (Davis  of  Mississippi  and  Toombs  of  Georgia)  were  ready 
to  accept  the  Crittenden  amendments,  and  laid  on  the  Repub 
lican  members,  led  by  Seward,  the  responsibility  for  the  defeat 
of  this  final  attempt  of  Congress  to  arrive  at  a  compromise 
on  the  slavery  question.1  But  even  if  Davis  and  Toombs  had 
accepted  the  Crittenden  amendments,  there  is  little  to  encourage 
the  belief  that  they  could  have  made  their  states  agree  to  a  meas 
ure  which,  by  excluding  slavery  from  territory  north  of  36°  30', 
annulled  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  of  185 4  and  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  of  1857.  It  was  precisely  the  unrestricted  extension 
of  slavery  and  its  unqualified  recognition  by  the  government  for 
which  the  South  was  contending.  The  "  tyranny  "  which  drove 
the  seven  cotton  states  into  secession  was  the  election  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  on  a  platform  which  declared  that  the  spread  of  slavery 
must  stop,  —  that  slavery  was  sectional  and  freedom  national. 
607.  why  the  Considering  the  fact  that  only  very  small  portions  of  the  terri- 
to°comproU-Sed  tories  of  the  United  States  in  1860  (namely,  certain  districts 
mise  in  1860  jn  Kansas  and  New  Mexico)  were  at  all  adaptable  to  slave  labor, 
it  may  seem  strange  that  the'  South  should  have  seceded  from 
the  Union  rather  than  endure  a  Republican  administration.  But 
the  matter  had  passed  beyond  the  stage  of  calm  reflection 
and  compromise.  The  fiery  orations  of  men  like  Yancey  and 
Toombs,  who  heaped  sarcasm  and  invective  on  everything  per 
taining  to  the  "  Yankee,"  had  conjured  up  a  spirit  in  the  South 
which  the  more  moderate  leaders  like  Alexander  Stephens, 
and  even  Jefferson  Davis,  could  not  control.  The  very  name 
"  Republican  "  had  become  a  hateful  provocation  to  the  South 
erners.  On  the  "  Black  Republicans  "  they  laid  all  the  blame 

1 A  great  "  Peace  Conference,"  attended  by  delegates  from  twenty-one  states, 
met  at  Washington  the  same  day  the  Confederate  government  was  organized  at 
Montgomery  (February  4,  1861).  A  little  later  Congress,  by  the  bare  two-thirds 
majorities  needed  (133  to  65  in  the  House,  24  to  12  in  the  Senate),  passed  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution,  making  slavery  inviolable  in  the  states  where  it 
was  established  by  law  (February  28,  1861).  But  it  was  too  late  for  compromise. 
The  amendment  was  ratified  by  only  two  of  the  states. 


Secession  419 

for  the  abolitionist  agitation  and  insults  of  a  generation  past, 
For  the  Personal-Liberty  acts  which  aided  the  escape  of  their 
negro  slaves,  for  the  emigrants  and  rifles  which  prevented  them 
Tom  making  a  slave  state  out  of  Kansas,  and  for  the  diabolical 
attempt  at  Harpers  Ferry  to  let  loose  upon  their  wives  and 
children  the  horrors  of  a  negro  insurrection.  Under  no  terms 
would  they  continue  to  live  in  a  Union  ruled  by  such  a  party. 
"  No,  sir,"  cried  Senator  Wigfall  of  Texas,  "  not  if  you  were  to 
land  us  blank  paper  and  ask  us  to  write  a  constitution,  would 
we  ever  again  be  confederated  with  you."  James  Russell  Lowell 
summed  the  whole  matter  up  in  a  single  sentence,  when  he  wrote 
in  the  January  ( 1 86 1 )  number  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  "The 
crime  of  the  North  is  the  census  of  1860,"  Steadily  and  rapidly 
the  free  population  of  the  North  had  been  growing  during  the 
decades  1840-1860,  until  it  contained  enough  liberty  men  to  elect 
a  President  who  declared  that  the  spread  of  slavery  must  stop.1 

Both  Davis  and  Stephens  in  their  accounts  of  the  Southern  608.  slavery 
Confederacy,  written  after  the   Civil  War,   asserted  that  not  ^ce^on*6 

slavery  but  the  denial  to  the  South  of  her  rights  under  the  and  the  civil 

War 
Constitution  was   the  cause  of  secession  and  the  war  which 

followed.  But  the  only  "right"  for  which  the  South  was  con 
tending  in  1860  was  the  right  to  have  the  institution  of  slavery 
recognized  and  protected  in  all  the  territory  of  the  United 
States.  Whether  or  not  the  Constitution  gave  the  South  this 
right  was  exactly  the  point  of  dispute.  It  was  not  a  case  of  the 
North's  refusing  to  give  the  South  its  constitutional  right,  but 
of  the  North's  denying  that  such  was  the  constitutional  right  of 
the  South.  It  was  a  conflict  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Con 
stitution  ;  and  slavery,  and  slavery  alone,  was  the  cause  of  that 

1  The  following  table  shows  the  increase  of  the  Liberty,  Free-Soil,  and  Re 
publican  vote  between  the  years  1840  and  1860  : 

1840  James  G.  Birney  received  7000  votes 
1844  James  G.  Birney  received  62.000  votes 
1848  Martin  Van  Buren  received  290,000  votes 
1852  John  P.  Hale  received  156,000  votes 

•  1856  John  C.  Fremont    received  1,340,000  votes 
1860  Abraham  Lincoln   received  1,860,000  votes 


42O  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

conflict.  To  say  that  secession  and  the  Civil  War  were  not 
caused  by  slavery,  therefore,  is  to  say  that  the  thing  for  which 
a  man  is  fighting  is  not  the  cause  of  the  fight. 

609.  The  Whether  or  not  the  Southern  states  had  a  right  to  secede 
theSsouth  to    from  the  Union  and  form  a  new  Confederacy,  for  the  cause  of 

slavery  or  anything  else,  is  another  question.  A  people  must 
always  be  its  own  judge  of  whether  its  grievances  at  any  mo 
ment  are  sufficient  to  justify  revolt  from  the  government  which 
it  has  heretofore  acknowledged.  Our  Revolutionary  forefathers 
exercised  that  right  of  judgment  when  they  revolted  from  the 
British  crown.  Until  a  revolt  is  successful  it  is  "  rebellion " 
against  constituted  authorities,  and  the  authors  of  it  and  partici 
pants  in  it  are,  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  traitors.  If  it  is  success 
ful,  it  is  called  a  "  revolution,"  and  marks  the  birth  of  a  new 
civil  society  or  "  state."  There  is  no  written  law  that  can  for 
bid  the  "  sacred  right  of  revolution,"  because  revolution  comes 
from  the  people  who  are  the  rightful  makers  of  the  law.  We 
may  believe,  as  many  men  of  the  South  do  believe  to-day,  that 
the  causes  of  the  revolt  of  the  Southern  states  in  1861  were  not 
sufficient  to  justify  secession  and  war ;  but  the  right  to  revolt,  if 
the  South  thought  it  had  just  cause,  is  beyond  argument. 

610.  conduct       Many  of  the  leading  men  of  the  South  remained  at  Wash- 
em  leaders  at  mgton,  m  Congress  or  in  executive  positions,  long  after  they 
Washington,    ha(j  \os^  their  sympathy  for  the  government  which  they  had 

taken  their  oath  to  support.  Two  members  of  the  cabinet, 
Floyd  of  Virginia  and  Thompson  of  Mississippi,  used  their 
high  positions  rather  to  encourage  than  to  prevent  disunion. 
The  senators  from  the  cotton  states  were  in  constant  com 
munication  with  the  governors  and  public  men  of  their 
states,  keeping  them  informed  on  events  in  Washington 
and  directing  the  course  of  secession.1  "  By  remaining  in 

1  The  senators  from  Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkan 
sas,  and  Texas  met  in  a  caucus  in  a  committee  room  of  the  Senate,  January  5, 
1861,  and  advised  their  states  to  secede  immediately.  Even  then  these  senators 
did  not  resign  their  seats,  but  waited  until  they  heard  that  their  states  had 
actually  passed  secession  ordinances. 


Secession  421 

our  places,"  wrote  Senator  Yulee  of  Florida,  "  we  can  keep  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Buchanan  tied  and  disable  the  Republicans  from 
effecting  any  legislation  that  will  strengthen  the  hands  of  the 
incoming  administration."  This  conduct  of  the  Southern  states 
men  was  resented  in  the  North  as  a  violation  of  their  oath  to 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

THE  FALL  OF  FORT  SUMTER 

It  was  a  serious  condition  of  affairs  that  confronted  Abraham  611.  crisis 
Lincoln  when  he  was  sworn  into  the  office  of  President  on 
March  4,  1861.  A  rival  government  in  the  South  had  been 
in  operation  for  a  full  month.  All  the  military  property,  except  1861 
one  or  two  forts,  in  the  seven  states  which  composed  the  Southern 
Confederacy  had  been  seized  by  the  secessionist  government.1 
From  Congress  and  the  executive  departments  at  Washington, 
from  federal  offices  all  through  the  North,  and  from  army  and 
navy  posts,  Southern  men  were  departing  daily  in  order  to 
join  the  fortunes  of  their  states.  Many  voices  in  the  North 
were  bidding  them  farewell  and  godspeed.  And,  most  serious 
of  all,  brave  Major  Robert  Anderson,  with  a  little  garrison  of 
83  men  in  Fort  Sumter  in  Charleston  harbor,  was  writing  to 
the  War  Department  that  his  stores  of  flour  and  bacon  were 
almost  exhausted. 

Lincoln's  inaugural  address  was  a  reassertion  of  his  kindly  612.  The  in- 
feeling  toward  the  South  and  a  plea  for  calm  deliberation  be- 
fore  any  acts  of  violence.  The  new  President  declared  his 
purpose  of  holding  the  forts  and  property  belonging  to  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  and  of  collecting  the  duties  and 
imposts.  But  beyond  what  was  necessary  to  execute  the  laws 
according  to  his  oath  of  office,  he  disclaimed  any  intention  of 
using  force  or  of  "  invading  "  the  South.  He  appealed  to  the 
common  memories  of  the  North  and  the  South,  which,  like 

1  It  was  estimated  that  one  half  the  military  property  of  the  nation,  valued  at 
$30,000,000,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederate  government. 


422 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


613.  The 
situation  in      - 
Charleston      alter 
harbor 


"  mystic  cords,  stretched  from  every  battlefield  and  patriot 
grave  to  every  living  heart  .  .  .  over  this  broad  land."  Turn 
ing  to  the  South  he  said  :  "  \i\yonr  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow 
countrymen,  and  not  in  mine  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil 
war.  The  government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no 
conflict  without  yourselves  being  the  aggressors.  You  have  no 
oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the  government,  while  / 
shall  have  the 
most  solemn  one 
to  preserve,  pro 
tect,  and  de 
fend  it."1 
A  few  days 
his  inau 
guration  Presi 
dent  Lincoln 
called  the  mem 
bers  of  his  cabi 
net  2  together, 
and  laid  before 
them  the  criti 
cal  situation  at 
Charleston.  In 
the  previous  De 
cember  Buchanan  had  heard  the  demands  of  commissioners 
from  the  "  sovereign  state  of  South  Carolina,"  who  had  come 
to  treat  with  the  government  of  the  United  States  for  the  sur 
render  of  the  forts  in  Charleston  harbor,  and  had  weakly  prom 
ised  not  to  make  any  move  to  provision  or  reenforce  the  forts  so 

1  The  entire  inaugural  address  should  be  read  by  every  student.    It  is  the 
finest  state  paper  in  our  history.    It  can  be  found  in  full  in  Nicolay  and  Hay's 
Abraham  Lincoln,  a  History,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  327. 

2  The  cabinet  was  composed  of  the  following  men  :  State,  William  H.  Seward  ; 
Treasury,   Salmon   P.   Chase ;    War,  Simon    Cameron ;    Navy,   Gideon  Welles ; 
Interior,  Caleb  Smith ;   Attorney-General,  Edwin   Bates ;    Postmaster-General, 
Montgomery  Blair.   Edwin  M.  Stanton  succeeded  Cameron  in  the  War  Depart 
ment  early  in  1862, 


Charleston  Harbor 

Showing  Fort  Sumter  and  the  battery  which  fired  on 
the  Star  of  the  West 


Secession  423 

long  as  South  Carolina  refrained  from  attacking  them.  Early  in 
January,  however,  Buchanan  had  been  spurred  by  the  Unionist 
sentiment  in  his  cabinet  to  send  the  transport  Star  of  the  West 
with  provisions  for  Major  Anderson's  garrison  in  Fort  Sumter. 
In  the  early  morning  of  January  9,  1861,  as  the  Star  of  the 
West  was  approaching  Fort  Sumter  with  the  American  flag  at 
her  masthead,  she  was  struck  by  shots  from  the  battery  on 
Morris  Island  and  forced  to  turn  back.  Public  sentiment  in 
the  North  was  outraged  by  this  attack  upon  the  flag,  but  still 
Buchanan  parleyed  and  excused,  praying  for  the  arrival  of  the 
day  which  should  release  him  from  the  responsibilities  of  his  high 
office.  That  day  had  now  arrived.  But  meanwhile  the  South 
Carolinians  had  strengthened  the  batteries  that  bore  upon  Fort 
Sumter,  until  Major  Anderson  reported  that  reinforcements  of 
20,000  men  would  be  necessary  to  maintain  his  position. 

It  was  a  critical  moment.    To  send  reinforcements  to  Major  614.  Lincoln 
Anderson  would  probably  precipitate  war.    There  was  a  wide- 


spread  feeling  in  the  North  that  if  the  Southern  states  wished  Fort  Sumter, 

to  secede  in  peace,  they  should  be  allowed  to  do  so.  Winfield 

Scott,  the  old  hero  of  two  wars  and  the  highest  general  in  the 

army,  advised  letting  the  "  wayward  sisters  depart  in  peace  "  ; 

and  Horace  Greeley,  editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  next  to 

Lincoln  and  Seward  the  most  influential  man  in  the  Republican 

party,  wrote  :  "  If  the  cotton  states  shall  decide  that  they  can 

do  better  out  of  the  Union  than  in  it,  we  insist  on  letting  them 

go  in  peace.  .  .  .    We  hope  never  to  live  in  a  republic  whereof 

one  section  is  pinned  to  the  residue  by  bayonets."    Lincoln  him 

self  hated  the  thought  of  war,  but  disunion  seemed  a  still  worse 

evil.    His  oath  of  office  left  him  no  choice,  he  thought,  of  par 

leying  with  secession.    On  the  first  of  April,  therefore,  with  the 

consent  of  all  his  cabinet  except  Seward  and  Smith,  he  notified 

Governor  Pickens  of  South  Carolina  that  an  attempt  would  be 

made  to  supply  Fort  Sumter  with  provisions,  but  that  no  men 

or  ammunition  would  be  thrown  into  the  fort  except  in  case  of 

resistance  on  the  part  of  the  state. 


424  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

615.  The  When  the  Confederate  government  at  Montgomery  heard  of 
bombardment     T..,.  .  .          •,        •,   ^,  i    ^> 

of  Fort  Sum-    -Lincoln  s  intentions,  it  ordered  General  Beauregard,  who  was 

X3r'x86?nl  ""  m  command  of  some  7000  troops  at  Charleston,  to  demand  the 
immediate  surrender  of  the  fort.  Major  Anderson  refused  to 
abandon  his  post,  and  General  Beauregard,  following  orders 
from  Montgomery,  made  ready  to  reduce  Fort  Sumter  by 
cannon.  Just  before  dawn,  on  the  twelfth  of  April,  1861,  a 
shell  rose  from  the  mortars  of  Fort  Johnson  and,  screaming 
over  the  harbor,  burst  just  above  the  fort.  It  was  the  signal 
for  a  general  bombardment.  In  a  few  minutes,  from  the  bat 
teries  of  Sullivan's,  Morris,  and  James  islands,  east  and  south 
and  west,  fifty  cannons  were  pouring  shot  and  shell  upon  Fort 
Sumter.  Anderson  stood  the  terrific  bombardment  for  two 
whole  days,  while  Northern  gunboats  lay  rolling  in  the  heavy 
weather  outside  the  bar,  unable  to  come  to  his  relief.  Finally, 
when  the  fort  had  been  battered  to  ruins  and  was  afire  from 
red-hot  shot,  Anderson  surrendered,  saluting  the  tattered  flag 
as  he  marched  his  half-suffocated  garrison  to  the  boats. 

616.  Lin-  The  bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter  opened  the  Civil  War. 
troops,0 April1  The  day  after  the   surrender  of  the   fort  (April   15)  Lincoln 
15,  1861           issued  a  proclamation  declaring  that  the  laws  of  the  United 

States  were  opposed  in  the  states  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  "  by  com 
binations  too  powerful  to  be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary  course 
of  judicial  proceeding,"  and  called  on  the  states  of  the  Union 
for  75,000  troops  of  their  militia  "to  suppress  the  said  combina 
tions."  At  the  same  time  he  ordered  all  persons  concerned  in 
this  uprising  against  the  government  to  disperse  within  twenty 
days,  and  summoned  Congress  to  assemble  in  extra  session  on 
the  fourth  of  July. 

617.  The  The  effect  of  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter  and  of  the  President's 
North  of  the    proclamation  was  the  instantaneous  crystallization  of  feeling  both 
SumterFOrt      Nortn  and  South.    In  the  North  men  forgot  party  lines  and 

political  animosities.  Douglas,  the  leader  of  a  million  and  a 
half  Democrats,  hastened  to  the  White  House  to  grasp  Lincoln's 


Secession  425 

hand  and  pledge  him  his  utmost  support  in  defending  the  Union. 
Ex-Presidents  Pierce  and  Buchanan,  hitherto  ruled  by  Southern 
sympathies,  came  over  to  the  Union  cause.  Editors  like  Horace 
Greeley,  preachers  like  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  statesmen  like 
Edward  Everett,  who  had  lately  found  the  idea  of  forcing  the 
Southern  states  to  remain  in  the  Union  abhorrent,  now  joined 
in  the  call  to  arms.  One  thing  only  filled  men's  thoughts,  —  the 
American  flag  had  been  fired  on  by  order  of  the  secessionist 
government  at  Montgomery. 

The  South  was  jubilant  over  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter.  Walker,  618.  The  ef- 
the  Confederate  secretary  of  war,  predicted  that  by  the  first  Se0cut£n 
of  May  the  Confederate  flag  would  float  over  the  dome  of  the 
Capitol  at  Washington.  Lincoln's  call  for  troops,  which  to  the 
North  meant  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  was  looked  on  by 
the  South  as  a  wicked  threat  to  invade  the  sacred  soil  of  sover 
eign  states  and  subjugate  a  peaceful  people  who  asked  only 
"  to  be  let  alone,"  to  live  under  their  own  institutions.1  The 
Confederate  Congress  met  what  (in  spite  of  the  firing  on  Fort 
Sumter)  they  called  "  Mr.  Lincoln's  declaration  of  war  on  the 
South"  by  raising  an  army  of  100,000  men  and  securing  a 
loan  of  $50,000,000. 

There  were  eight  states  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  619.  Four 
which  had  not  joined   the   Southern  Confederacy  before  the  JJ 
attack  on  Fort  Sumter,  although  they  were   all   slaveholding  federacy 
states  and  there  was   strong  secessionist   sentiment  in  all  of 
them  but  Delaware.2    Lincoln's  call  for  troops  drove  four  of 
these  states  (Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Arkansas,  and  Tennessee) 
into  the  Confederacy ;   while   Kentucky  and   Missouri,  whose 
governors  had  refused  with  equal  indignation  to  furnish  their 

1  Jefferson  Davis  wrote  in  his  message  to  the  Confederate  Congress  (April  29) : 
"  We  feel  that  our  cause  is  just  and  holy.  ...  In  independence  we  seek  no  con 
quest  ...  no  cession  from  the  states  with  which  we  have  lately  confederated.  .  .  . 
All  we  ask  is  to  be  let  alone,  —  that  those  who  have  never  held  any  power  over 
us  shall  not  now  attempt  our  subjugation  by  arms.   This  we  will,  we  must,  resist 
to  the  direst  extremity." 

2  They  were  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  North 
Carolina,  Missouri,  Arkansas. 


426 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


militia  for  the  purpose  of  "  subjugating  their  sister  states  of 
the  South,"  were  kept  in  the  Union  only  with  great  difficulty.1 


States  seceding  before  the  fall  of  Fort  Suinter    |      ;.  -| 


Slave  states  remaining  loyal 

Free  states  (with  California  and  Oregon)  | 


How  the  Southern  Confederacy  was  enlarged  after  the 
Fall  of  Fort  Sumter 

620.  Virginia       The  secession  of  Virginia  two  days  after  Lincoln's  call  for 
furnishes  r  ,       ~        , 

General  Lee      troops  was  an  event  of  prime  importance.    It  gave  the  South 

federacy0n"  -  her  greatest  general,  Robert  E.  Lee.  General  Lee  was  the  son 
of  a  distinguished  Revolutionary  general,  belonging  to  one  of 
the  first  families  of  Virginia,  and  was  himself  a  gentleman  of 

1  In  Missouri  it  actually  came  to  civil  war.  Governor  Jackson  was  a  secessionist, 
while  the  Union  cause  was  championed  by  Francis  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  one  of  Missouri's 
first  citizens,  and  brother  of  the  Postmaster-General  in  Lincoln's  cabinet.  Captain 
Lyon,  commanding  the  Home  Guards  (Unionist  troops),  took  Camp  Jackson, 
which  the  secessionists  had  fortified  on  the  outskirts  of  St.  Louis ;  then  sailed 
up  the  Missouri  River  and  drove  the  Jackson  government  out  of  the  capital, 


Secession  427 

spotless  purity  of  character,  —  noble,  generous,  sincere,  brave, 
and  gifted.  He  had  already  been  selected  by  President  Lincoln 
to  command  the  Union  army,  but  he  felt  that  he  could  not  draw 
his  sword  against  his  native  state.  After  an  agonizing  mental 
struggle  he  resigned  his  commission  in  the  United  States  army 
and  offered  his  services  to  his  state.  He  became  commander 
of  the  Virginia  troops,  and,  in  May,  1862,  general  of  the  Con 
federate  army  in  Virginia,  which  he  led  with  wonderful  skill  and 
devotion  through  the  remainder  of  the  Civil  War.1 

The  secession  of  Virginia  also  brought  the  boundaries  of  the  621.  united 
Confederacy  up  to  the  Potomac  River,  and  planted  the  "  stars 


and  bars  "  where  they  could  be  seen  from  the  windows  of  the  Baltimore, 

April  19,  1861 

Capitol  at  Washington.  The  city  was  almost  defenseless.  There 
were  rumors  that  Beauregard's  troops  were  coming  from  Charles 
ton  to  attack  it.  The  troops  of  the  North,  in  responding  to  Lin 
coln's  call,  had  to  cross  the  state  of  Maryland  to  reach  the  capital. 
Maryland  was  a  slave  state,  and  her  sympathy  with  the  "  sister 
states  of  the  South  "  was  strong.  Baltimore  was  full  of  seces 
sionists.  While  the  Sixth  Massachusetts  regiment  was  crossing 
the  city  it  was  attacked  by  a  mob,  and  had  to  fight  its  way  to 
the  Washington  station  in  a  bloody  street  battle  (April  19).  The 
first  blood  of  the  Civil  War  was  shed  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
battle  of  Lexington. 

President  Lincoln  was  in  great  distress  for  the  safety  of  the  622.  The 
capital.2  Men  were  leaving  Washington  by  hundreds  in  a  panic,  i^ved  from 
fleeing  as  from  a  doomed  city.    Governor  Hicks  of  Maryland,  dans",  A?ril 
swept  along  by  the  secessionist  sentiment  at   Baltimore,  had 

Jefferson  City.  Kentucky  was  kept  faithful  largely  through  the  tactful  and  patient 
nursing  of  Unionist  feeling  by  President  Lincoln,  who  was  especially  anxious 
that  his  native  state  should  not  join  the  ranks  of  the  seceders. 

1  It  was  not  till  near  the  close  of  the  war  (1865)  that  President  Davis,  who 
never  very  cordially  recognized  Lee's  greatness,  was  forced  by  public  opinion  to 
make  him  general  in  chief  of  the  Confederate  forces  in  the  field. 

2  Nicolay  and  Hay  (Vol.  IV,  p.  152)  tell  how  President  Lincoln  paced  the 
floor  of  his  office  in  the  White  House  for  hours  on  the  twenty-third  of  April,  gaz 
ing  out  of  the  windows  that  looked  down  the  Potomac,  where  he  expected  any 
moment  to  see  the  Confederate  gunboats  appear,  and  calling  out  audibly,  in  his 
anxiety,  for  the  Union  troops  to  hasten  to  the  relief  of  the  city. 


428  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

forbidden  any  more  troops  to  cross  the  soil  of  the  state  (April 
22),  and  infuriated  mobs  had  torn  up  railroads  and  destroyed 
bridges.  But  plucky  regiments  from  Massachusetts  and  New 
York  ("  the  dandy  Seventh  ")  reached  Annapolis  by  the  waters 
of  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  relaying  the  track  and  rebuilding  the 
bridges  as  they  marched,  came  into  the  city  of  Washington  on 
the  twenty-fifth  of  April.  As  they  marched  up  Pennsylvania 
Avenue,  with  colors  flying  and  bands  playing,  the  anxious  gloom 
which  had  lain  on  the  city  since  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter  was 
changed  to  rejoicing.  The  national  capital  was  safe. 


REFERENCES 

The  Election  of  Abraham  Lincoln:  J.  W.  DRAPER,  The  Civil  War  in 
America,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  xxvi-xxxi ;  J.  F.  RHODES,  History  of  the  United 
States  from  the  Compromise  0/1850,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  x,  xi ;  Vol.  Ill,  chap, 
xiii;  NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Works  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Vol.  VI;  ALLEN 
JOHNSON,  Stephen  Arnold  Douglas,  chap,  xviii ;  H.  VON  HOLST,  Con 
stitutional  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  VII,  chaps,  i,  iii-vii ; 
WILLIAM  MACDONALD,  Select  Documents  of  United  States  History, 
1776-1861,  No.  94  ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Contem 
poraries,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  49-61  ;  J.  W.  BURGESS,  The  Civil  War  and  the 
Constitution,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  iii,  iv ;  EDWARD  STANWOOD,  History  of  the 
Presidency,  chap,  xxi ;  F.  E.  CHADWICK,  Causes  of  the  Civil  War 
(American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  i-ix. 

The  Southern  Confederacy  :  DRAPER,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  xxxii,  xxxiii ;  Vol. 
II,  chaps,  xxxiv,  xxxv ;  RHODES,  Vol.  Ill,  chap,  xiv ;  VON  HOLST, 
Vol.  VII,  chaps,  viii-xi ;  MACDONALD,  Nos.  95-97  ;  HART,  Nos.  62-69  ; 
BURGESS,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  iv-vi ;  CHADWICK,  chaps,  ix-xi ;  HORACE 
GREELEY,  The  American  Conflict,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  xxvi,  xxvii ;  J.  S. 
WISE,  The  End  of  an  Era,  chaps,  x,  xi ;  NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  a  History,  Vol.  Ill,  chap,  i ;  JEFFERSON  DAVIS,  Rise  and  Fall 
of  the  Confederacy,  Vol.  I,  part  iii ;  G.  T.  CURTIS,  James  Buchanan, 
Vol.  II,  chap.  xv. 

The  Fall  of  Fort  Sumter :  DRAPER,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xxxvi-xl ;  RHODES, 
Vol.  Ill,  chap,  xiv;  HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  70-74;  BURGESS,  Vol.  I, 
chap,  vii;  GREELEY,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  xxviii,  xxix ;  CHADWICK,  chaps. 
xii-xix;  S.  W.  CRAWFORD,  The  Genesis  of  the  Civil  War;  ABNER 
DOUBLED  AY,  Reminiscences  of  Forts  Sumter  and  Moultrie ;  C.  E. 


Secession  429 

MERRIAM,  American  Political  Theories,  chap,  vi ;  J.  G.  NICOLAY,  The 
Outbreak  of  the  War,  chaps,  ii,  iii ;  DAVIS,  Vol.  I,  part  iv ;  J.  B.  MOORE, 
Works  of  James  Buchanan,  Vol.  XI  (use  complete  Table  of  Contents). 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  The  Republican  Convention  of  1860  at  Chicago  :  RHODES,  Vol.  II,  pp. 
456-473 ;  BURGESS,  Vol.  I,  pp.  58-67  ;  VON  HOLST,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  140- 
186 ;  HART,  Vol.  IV,  No.  50 ;  STAN  WOOD,  pp.  290-297  ;  JAMES  SCHOULER, 
History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  V,  pp.  457-461  ;  NICOLAY  and  HAY, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  a  History,  Vol.  II,  pp.  255-278. 

2.  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  a  Southern  Antisecessionist :  NICOLAY  and 
HAY,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  266-275;  JOHNSTON  and  BROWNE,  Alexander  H. 
Stephens,  pp.  357-387  ;  Louis  PENDLETON,  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  pp. 
153-170;  HART,  Vol.  IV,  No.  53;  HENRY  CLEVELAND,  Letters  and 
Speeches  of  Alexander  H.    Stephens,  pp.  694-713;  A.  H.  STEPHENS,  A 
Constitutional  View  of  the  Late   War  between  the  States,  Vol.  II,  pp. 
299  ff. 

3.  Efforts  at  Compromise,  1860-1861 :  CHADWICK,  pp.  166-183  ;  HART, 
Vol.   IV,  Nos.  63,  65,   68,  69 ;  VON  HOLST,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  393-457 ; 
NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  214-238;  GREELEY,  Vol.  I,  pp.  351- 
406  ;  W.  G.  BROWN,  The  Lower  South  in  American  History,  pp.  83-1 12  ; 

MACDONALD,    NOS.    93,    95,   96;    CURTIS,    Vol.    II,    pp.    439-444;    MRS. 

CHAPMAN  COLEMAN,  Life  of  John  J.  Crittenden,  Vol.  II,  pp.  224-260. 

4.  The  Struggle  to  keep  Missouri  in  the  Union :    BURGESS,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
186-191 ;  LUCIEN  CARR,  Missouri,  pp.  267-341 ;  GREELEY,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
488-492  ;    S.   B.  HARDING,  Missouri  Party  Struggles  in  the  Civil  War 
(American    Historical    Association    Reports,    Vol.    VII,    pp.    85-103); 
SCHOULER,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  186-192 ;   NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Vol.  IV,  pp. 
206-226;  T.  L.  SNEAD,  The  Fight  for  Missouri. 

5.  John  Brown,  Apostle  :  T.  W.  HIGGINSON,  Cheerful  Yesterdays,  pp. 
199-234,  258-262;     O.  P.  ANDERSON,  A   Voice  from  Harpers  Ferry; 
HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  47,  48 ;  CHADWICK,  pp.  67-89 ;  RHODES,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  401-416;  J.  G.  WHITTIER,  Brown  of  Ossawatomie ;  M.  J.  WRIGHT, 
The  Trial  and  Execution  of  John  Brown  (American  Historical  Associa 
tion  Reports,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  111-126);  O.  G.  VILLARD,_/<?^?Z  Brown,  Fifty 
Years  After,  pp.  558-589. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  CIVIL  WAR 

THE  OPPOSING  FORCES 

623.  The  So  the  men  of  the  North  and  the  sons  of  Dixie l  were  mus- 

South  tering  to  arms  in  the  spring  of  1861.   Each  side  doubted  whether 

the  other  really  meant  to  fight ;  each  believed  that,  if  they  fought, 
its  own  victory  would  be  short  and  decisive.  Each  was  abso 
lutely  convinced  of  the  righteousness  of  its  own  cause.  "  War 
has  been  forced  upon  us  by  the  folly  and  fanaticism  of  the 
Northern  abolitionists,"  said  an  Atlanta  paper ;  "  we  fight  for 
our  liberties,  our  altars,  our  firesides.  .  .  .  Surely  8,000,000 
people  armed  in  the  holy  cause  of  liberty  .  .  .  are  invincible 
by  any  force  the  North  can  send  against  them."  On  the  other 
side  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  Northern  mass  meetings  re 
solved  that  "  this  infamous,  hell-born  rebellion  against  the  mild 
est,  the  most  beneficent  government  ever  vouchsafed  to  men  " 
should  be  speedily  put  down,  and  "  our  glorious  Constitution 
restored  in  every  part  of  our  country."  Thirty  years  of  gather 
ing  bitterness  had  made  it  absolutely  impossible  for  the  men  of 
the  North  and  of  the  South  to  understand  each  other.  As 
early  even  as  1832  our  distinguished  French  visitor  and  critic 
De  Tocqueville  had  prophesied  the  "  inevitable  separation  "  of 
the  two  sections.2 

1  The  boundary  line  which  was  run  in  1764-1767  between  the  colonies  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  by  the  surveyors  Mason  and  Dixon  (p.  63,  note  2),  be 
came  the  dividing  line  between  free  and  slave  soil.  The  Southerners  called  their 
side  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  "  Dixie  land  "  or  "  Dixie." 

2  It  was  apparently  the  honest  conviction  of  Northerners  that  every  man  south 
of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  was  a  Preston  Brooks,  and  of  Southerners  that  every 
man  north  of  the  line  was  a  John  Brown.    Mr.  Russell,  the  correspondent  of 
the  London   Times,  found  that  on  one  side  of  the  Ohio  River  he  was  among 

43° 


The  Civil  War  431 

North  and  South  were  unequally  matched  for  the  great  624.  The  re- 
struggle  that  was  before  them.  Although  the  seceding  and  the  two^ct/ons! 
loyal  states  were  about  equal  in  territory,  the  resources  of  the  population 
North  far  exceeded  those  of  the  South.  Of  the  31,000,000  in 
habitants  of  the  United  States  by  the  census  of  1860,  there 
were  19,000,000  in  the  eighteen  free  states  of  the  North,  3,000,- 
ooo  in  the  four  loyal  slave  states  of  Delaware,  Maryland, 
Kentucky,  and  Missouri,  and  9,000,000  in  the  eleven  states  of 
the  Southern  Confederacy.  But  of  the  last  9,000,000,  nearly 
one  half  (3,600,000)  were  negro  slaves.  For  military  service 
the  North  could  furnish  5,000,000  men  between  the  ages  of  18 
and  60,  to  about  1,500,000  in  the  South.  Furthermore  the 
population  of  the  North  was  increasing  very  rapidly  (41  per 
cent  in  the  decade  1850-1860),  whereas  in  most  of  the  states 
of  the  South  it  was  almost  stationary.  During  the  decade  1850- 
1860  immigrants  (mostly  Irish  and  Germans)  had  come  into 
the  United  States  in  numbers  equal  to  the  entire  slave  popula 
tion  of  the  seceding  states,  and  had  all  gone  into  the  free  North 
to  increase  the  wealth  produced  by  the  mills,  the  forges,  and  the 
wheat  fields.1 

Because  cotton  formed  two  thirds  of  the  exports  of  the  625.  Indus- 
United  States  in  1860  ($125,000,000  out  of  $197,000,000),  tnes 
the  South  was  deceived  into  thinking  that  it  was  the  most  pros 
perous  part  of  the  country,  and  that  its  slave  labor  was  mak 
ing  New  England  rich.    But  the  South  overlooked  the  fact  that 

"  abolitionists,  cutthroats,  Lincolnite  mercenaries,  invaders,  assassins,"  and  on  the 
other  side  among  "  rebels,  robbers,  conspirators,  wretches  bent  on  destroying 
the  most  perfect  government  on  the  face  of  the  earth."  He  testified  that  there 
was  "  certainly  less  vehemence  and  bitterness  among  the  Northerners,"  but  no 
less  determination. 

1  There  was  no  result  of  the  Compromise  of  1850  more  favorable  to  the  North 
than  its  postponement  of  the  great  Civil  War  for  ten  years.  During  that  decade 
the  states  of  the  Northwest  were  filled  up  with  a  hardy,  loyal  population,  who  fur 
nished  immense  strength  to  the  Northern  side  during  the  war.  Wisconsin,  for 
example,  gained  475,000  inhabitants,  and  Michigan  over  650,000,  in  the  decade. 
Discerning  Southerners  since  Calhoun's  day  had  seen  the  necessity  of  fighting 
soon  if  they  fought  at  all.  The  anxiety  of  "  fire  eaters  "  like  Rhett  and  Yancey  to 
hasten  the  crisis  in  1850  finds  its  explanation  partly  in  this  rapid  growth  of  the 
North. 


432 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


626.  Social 
progress 


a  country's  wealth  consists  not  in  the  amount  of  its  exports, 
but  in  its  ability  to  distribute  the  necessities  and  comforts  and 
luxuries  of  life  to  a  growing  population.  Measured  by  this 
standard  of  wealth,  the  South  was  poor  in  1860,  in  spite  of  its 
$235,000,000  crop  of  cotton.  For  while  a  few  thousand  rich 
planters  were  selling  this  crop,  and  investing  their  profits  in  more 
negroes  and  more  land,  a  majority  of  the  white  inhabitants  of 


j,^._"CouMn't 
pedlars  would  leave 


A  Group  of  War  Envelopes 

the  South  were  in  comparative  poverty  and  idleness,  seeing  the 
land  absorbed  by  the  cotton  plantations  and  the  labor  market 
filled  with  negro  slaves. 

Manufactures,  railroad  mileage,  the  growth  of  cities,  the  dif 
fusion  of  knowledge,  progress  in  art  and  letters,  are  all  sighs  of 
a  country's  prosperity.  The  South  had  hardly  any  manufactures 
in  i860.1  She  spun  and  wove  but  two  and  one-half  per  cent 

1  The  North  turned  out  manufactures  in  1860  valued  at  $1,730,330,000,  com 
pared  with  an  output  valued  at  $155,000,000  for  the  South,  a  ratio  of  12  to  i. 
Governor  Wise  of  Virginia  said  to  the  people  of  his  state  in  1859  :  "  Commerce 
has  long  since  spread  her  sails  and  sailed  away  from  you.  .  .  .  You  have  not 
as  yet  dug  more  than  enough  coal  to  warm  yourselves  at  your  own  hearths  .  .  . 
you  have  not  yet  spun  coarse  cotton  enough  to  clothe  your  own  slaves."  As 
against  a  cotton  crop  worth  $235,000,000  raised  by  the  South,  the  North  pro 
duced  wheat  and  corn  valued  at  $845,000,000. 


The  Civil  War  433 

of  the  cotton  she  raised,  and  only  one  fourth  of  the  31,000 
miles  of  railroad  track  in  the  United  States  was  laid  on  her 
soil.  While  the  free  states  of  the  North  abounded  in  thriving 
cities,  equipped  with  gas  and  water  systems,  tramways,  public 
schools  and  libraries,  hospitals,  banks,  and  churches,  the  census 
of  1860  found  only  six  "cities"  in  Alabama  with  a  population 
of  i  ooo  or  over,  four  in  Louisiana,  and  none  in  Arkansas.1  Not 
a  single  Southern  state  had  a  free  public-school  system  before 
the  war.  Fifteen  per  cent  of  the  adult  male  white  population 
of  Virginia  (in  addition  of  course  to  practically  all  the  negroes) 
were  unable  to  read  or  write,  according  to  the  census  of  1850, 
while  only  two  fifths  of  one  per  cent  of  the  adult  males  of 
Massachusetts  were  illiterate. 

The  cause  of  this  sad  social  and  industrial  condition  in  the  627.  slavery 
South  was  the  plantation  system  founded  on  negro  slavery,  thj!  0 
which  developed  a  "  caste  "  of  some  380,000  aristocratic  plant 
ers  at  the  expense  of  over  5,000,000  "  poor  whites."  Whatever 
relieving  touches  there  are  in  the  picture  of  the  slave  planta 
tion,  —  the  sweet,  devoted  Southern  woman  nursing  her  sick 
negroes  with  her  own  hands,  and  the  strong  and  tender  attach 
ment  of  the  children  of  the  household  to  the  old  black  "  mammy  " 
in  whose  arms  they  had  been  sung  to  sleep  since  infancy,— 
the  system  of  slavery,  besides  being  a  blight  on  the  industry  of 
the  South,  was  a  constant  menace  to  the  morals  and  temper 
of  the  planters  and  their  families.  The  growing  generations  of 
the  slaveholding  South  had  always  before  their  eyes  three  ugly 
features  of  the  system :  the  mulattoes,  whose  presence  in  large 
numbers  was  a  witness  to  the  immorality  encouraged  by  slave- 
holding  ;  the  slave  trader  and  slave  driver,  whose  very  existence 
testified  to  the  cruelty  of  the  system ;  and  the  constant  domi 
neering  vigilance  of  the  slaveholder  against  any  signs  of  negro 
uprising  or  self-assertion.  It  seems  almost  incredible  to  us 

1  Zachary  Taylor  of  Louisiana,  while  on  a  Northern  visit  as  President-elect, 
in  1848-1849,  looked  from  a  height  near  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  on  a  group 
of  thriving  towns  and  remarked,  "  You  cannot  see  any  such  sight  as  that  in  a 
Southern  state  !  " 


434 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


628.  Helper' 
"  Impending 
Crisis  " 


629.  Advan 
tages  of  the 
Southerners ; 
their 
defensive 
position 


to-day  that  the  men  of  the  South,  fighting  for  the  support  of 
such  an  institution,  could  inscribe  on  their  banners  "  liberty 
and  equality."  1 

We  may  wonder,  too,  why  the  millions  of  "  poor  whites  "  in 
the  South,  who  had  no  slaves  and  no  interest  in  slavery,  should 
have  fought  through  four  years  with  desperate  gallantry  for  the 
maintenance  of  a  system  which  meant  for  them  only  wretched 
ness.  One  of  their  number,  Hinton  R.  Helper  of  North  Carolina, 
had  published  a  book  in  1857,  entitled  "  The  Impending  Crisis," 
in  which  he  showed  with  a  merciless  array  of  figures  the  economic 
burden  which  slavery  entailed  upon  the  South.  Helper  called 
the  slaveholding  aristocracy  no  better  than  the  basest  "  ruffians, 
outlaws,  and  criminals,"  and  advised  "  no  cooperation  with  them 
in. religion,  no  affiliation  with  them  in  society."  Had  the  "  poor 
whites"  been  able  to  read  and  understand  the  figures  and 
arguments  of  Helper's  book,  it  is  probable  that  they  would  not 
have  fought  the  war  for  the  slaveholders,  and  slavery  might  have 
been  abolished  by  peaceful  means.  But  the  "  poor  whites  "  of 
the  South  were  not  educated  to  think.  They  were  awed  by  the 
rich  planters.  They  believed  that  the  "  Black  Republicans  "  of 
the  North  meant  to  subjugate  them  and  turn  their  land  over 
to  the  negro.  They  rose  in  mass  to  defend  a  civilization  which 
was  the  worst  enemy  of  their  interests. 

The  leaders  of  the  South  knew,  of  course,  that  the  North 
was  superior  in  resources,  but  they  counted  on  several  real 
advantages  and  several  anticipated  developments  to  give  them 
the  victory.  First,  and  most  important  of  all,  they  would  be 
fighting  on  their  own  soil,  whereas  the  North,  in  order  "  to 
repossess  the  forts  and  other  seized  property  of  the  United 

1  In  a  fiery  secessionist  speech  in  the  Senate,  January  7,  1861,  Robert  Toombs 
of  Georgia  closed  with  the  words  :  "  You  present  us  war.  We  accept  it ;  and  in 
scribing  on  our  banners  the  glorious  words  <  liberty  and  equality,'  we  will  trust  to  the 
blood  of  the  brave  and  the  God  of  battles  for  security  and  tranquillity."  Another 
Georgian,  Louis  Pendleton,  in  his  biography  of  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  writes 
.  (1904)  :  «  Reflecting  Southern  men  to-day  are  filled  with  sadness  as  they  read 
their  grandfathers'  eulogies  of  an  institution  which  wrought  the  ruin  of  the 
fairest  portion  of  the  United  States." 


The  Civil  War  435 

States,"  and  to  put  down  the  rebellious  "  combinations,"  would 
have  to  "  invade  "  Southern  territory.  The  men  who  fight  on 
the  defensive  are  always  at  an  advantage.  They  know  the  lay 
of  the  land ;  they  have  their  base  of  supplies  close  at  hand  ;  they 
are  inspired  by  the  thought  that  they  are  defending  their  homes. 

Then,  too,  the  Southerners,  by  nature  and  training,  were  630.  Their 
better  fitted  for  war  than  the  mechanics,  clerks,  and  farmers  of  ^J?"ng  ° 
the  North.    The  Southern  temper  was  more  ardent.    The  men 
of  the  South  commonly  carried  firearms.  They  were  accustomed 
from  boyhood  to  the  saddle.    In  the  Mexican  War  many  more 
Southern  officers  than  Northern  ones  had  been  trained  for  the 
great  civil  contest. 

Besides  these  actual  advantages  the  South  counted  on  help  631.  The 
in  three  directions.    She  expected  that  foreign  nations,  espe-  p^tecfiifit 
daily  Great  Britain  and  France,  dependent  on  her  for  their  expectations 
supply  of  raw  cotton,  would  lend  their  aid  to  establish  an  inde 
pendent  cotton-raising  South,  which  would  levy  no  duties  on  their 
manufactures.    She  thought,  too,  that  the  first  move  in  behalf 
of  a  new  republic  whose  corner  stone  was  slavery 1  would  bring 
all  the  other  slaveholding  states  into  the  Confederacy.  And  she 
looked  to  the  Democrats  of  the  North,  who  had  cast  1,370,000 
votes  against  Abraham   Lincoln,  and  whose  leaders   had  re 
peatedly  shown  signs  of  Southern  leanings,  to  defeat  any  at 
tempt  of  the  Republicans  to  "  subjugate  the  South." 

We  have  seen  how  completely  deceived  the  South  was  in 
the  last  expectation,  when  the  shot  fired  on  Fort  Sumter  roused 
the  North  as  one  man  to  pledge  President  Lincoln  its  aid  in 
defending  the  Union.2  We  have  seen  also  how  only  four  of  the 

1  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  vice  president  of  the  Confederacy,  in  a  famous 
speech  at  Savannah,  Georgia,  in  the  spring  of  1861,  declared  that  the  new  Con 
federacy  was  founded  upon  slavery  as  a  "  corner  stone." 

2  The  Southern  press  was  very  bitter  over  the  "  desertion  "  of  the  Democrats 
of  the  North  :  "  Where  are  Messrs.  Gushing,  Van  Buren,  Pierce,   Buchanan, 
Douglas  et  id  omne  genus,  —  where  are  they  in  the  bloody  crusade  proposed 
by  President  Lincoln  against  the  South?  .  .  .  Hounding  on  the   fanatic  war 
fare'  !  .  .  .  The  Northern  politicians  have  all  left  us.    Let  them  fly  —  all,  false 
thanes  I " 


436  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

eight  slaveholding  states  north  of  the  cotton  states  joined  the 
Confederacy  on  Lincoln's  call  for  troops  (p.  425).  The  South 
was  equally  disappointed  in  the  hope  of  foreign  intervention 
and  aid.  Queen  Victoria  issued  a  proclamation  of  strict  neu 
trality  a  month  after  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter  (May  12);  and 
Emperor  Napoleon  III,  although  expressing  to  Mr.  Slidell,  the 
Confederate  envoy  to  France,  his  personal  sympathy  for 
the  South,  was  careful  to  avoid  any  official  breach  with  the 
government  at  Washington. 

632.  The  for-       Moreover,  large  portions  even  of  some  of  the  seceding  states 
west  vir-        remained  faithful  to  the  Union,  especially  the  mountain  districts 
ginia  jn  western  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and  in  eastern  Ten 
nessee.    Forty-eight  counties  in  western  Virginia  broke  away 
from  the  state  and  formed  a  loyal  government,  which  was  rec 
ognized  by  President  Lincoln,  and  later  received  into  the  Union 
(1863)  as  the  state  of  West  Virginia.   A  striking  proof  of  the 
divergent  views  of  loyalty  in  North  and  South  is  the  fact  that 
the  wise  and  moderate  Robert  E.  Lee  called  the  people  of  West 
Virginia  "  traitors  "  for  leaving  their  state  to  adhere  to  the  Union. 

So  the  men  of  the  North  and  the  sons  of  Dixie  were  arrayed 
against  each  other,  in  the  spring  of  1861,  for  a  contest  which 
none  dreamed  would  be  the  most  prolonged  and  bloody  since 
Napoleon's  rash  attempt,  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  to 
subjugate  the  continent  of  Europe. 

FROM  BULL  RUN  TO  GETTYSBURG 

633.  The  im-       The  work  entitled  "  The  Official  Records  of  the  Union  and 
the  civil  war    Confederate  Armies  and  Navies  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion," 

published  by  the  government  at  Washington,  fills  more  than  130 
bulky  volumes,  and  chronicles  over  2000  engagements,  of  which 
about  150  are  important  enough  to  be  called  "  battles."  A  mere 
list  of  the  titles  of  historic  biographies  and  memoirs  relating  to 
the  Civil  War  would  fill  hundreds  of  pages.  Such  a  list  pre 
pared  only  a  year  after  the  close  of  the  war  (Bartlett's  "  Literature 


^  The  Civil  War  437 

of  the  Rebellion,"  1866)  contains  6073  such  titles.  This  im 
mense  mass  of  literature  pertaining  to  the  Civil  War  is  a  proof 
of  the  significance  of  that  event  in  our  country's  history.  Except 
for  the  critical  years  1775-1789,  in  which  our  nation  was  formed, 
no  other  period  in  our  history  can  compare  in  importance  with 
the  great  Civil  War  of  1861-1865,  which  determined  that  the 
nation  which  the  fathers  had  founded  should  endure  one  and 
undivided,  and  removed  from  it  the  ugly  institution  of  negro 
slavery,  which  for  decades  had  cursed  its  soil,  embroiled  its 
politics,  and  outraged  the  conscience  of  half  its  people. 

We  need  not  go  into  the  military  details  of  the  Civil  War  in  634.  HOW  we 
order  to  appreciate  its  importance.  Military  history  is  useful  only 
for  the  special  student  of  the  science  of  war.  The  marching 
and  countermarching  of  the  2,5oo,ooo1  men  who  fought  the 
battles  of  the  Civil  War,  the  disposition  of  artillery,  cavalry, 
and  infantry  by  thousands  of  officers  in  hundreds  of  impor 
tant  engagements,  the  countless  deeds  of  heroism  on  both  sides, 
on  land  and  sea,  we  must  pass  over,  only  to  sketch  in  outline 
the  few  great  campaigns  on  which  the  fortunes  of  the  republic 
hung.  Two  things  we  must  constantly  bear  in  mind  :  first,  the 
superior  resources  of  the  North  in  men  and  wealth,  which  told 
with  increasing  emphasis  as  the  war  progressed  ;  and  secondly, 
the  advantage  that  the  South  had  in  fighting  on  her  own  soil 
against  the  invading  armies  of  the  North.2  Had  the  South  pos 
sessed  the  resources  of  the  North,  she  could  never  have  been 
beaten ;  had  she  attempted  to  invade  the  North,  her  armies 
would  have  been  repulsed  at  the  borders. 

1  Livermore,  in  his  Numbers  and  Losses  in  the  Civil  War  (1901),  our  best 
authority,  gives  the  total  numbers  on  each  side,  on  the  basis  of  an  enlistment  for 
three  years, —  Union,  1,556,678;  Confederate,  1,082,119. 

2  Strictly  speaking,  it  was  not  a  "  civil  war."   That  term  refers  to  a  struggle 
between  two  opposing  factions  or  parties  (religious  or  political)  living  on  the 
same  soil.    In  the  war  of  1861-1865  a  united  South,  claiming  to  be  an  inde 
pendent  country,  was  invaded  by  the  armies  of  a  (less)  united  North.    Com 
pare  the  actual  "civil  war"  in  Kansas  in  1855-1856,  where  free-state  men  and 
slave-state  men  were  fighting  for  control  of  their  common  territory.   Alexander 
H.  Stephens  more  accurately  calls  the  war  of  1861-1865  the  War  between  the 
States.   A  still  better  title  would  be  the  War  of  Secession. 


438 


The  Civil  War  439 

We  turn  now  to  the  field  of  battle.  When  Virginia  seceded,  635.  «on  to 
the  capital  of  the  Confederacy  was  changed  from  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  to  Richmond,  and  the  Confederate  Congress  was 
called  to  meet  at  the  new  capital,  July  20,  1861.  The  North, 
in  the  first  flush  of  its  enthusiastic  response  to  Lincoln's  call 
for  troops,  was  determined  that  the  Confederate  Congress 
should  not  meet.  "  On  to  Richmond  !  "  was  the  cry  that  rang 
through  the  North.  The  raw  troops  were  not  properly  organ 
ized  or  drilled,  and  the  quartermaster's  and  commissariat  de 
partments  T  were  not  prepared  for  a  campaign.  But  President 
Lincoln  and  General  Scott  yielded  to  the  popular  demand  for  a 
move  on  Richmond,  especially  as  the  three  months'  term  of  the 
militia  called  for  in  April  was  about  to  expire. 

General  Beauregard,  with  22,000  troops,  was  at  Manassas  636.  The  bat- 
Junction,  a  town  near  the  little  stream  called  Bull  Run,  about  Run  (Manas- 
thirty-five  miles  southwest  of  Washington.    In  the  Shenandoah  sas)>  July  2I> 
valley,  across   the   Blue   Ridge,  were  9000   more  men  under 
General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who  was  to  become,  next  to  Lee, 
the  greatest  commander  of  the  South.2    General  Patterson,  a 
veteran   of  the  War  of    1812,  was   to   hold  Johnston  in  the 
valley,   while    General    McDowell,   with    an   army   of  30,000, 
attacked  General  Beauregard  at  Manassas.   McDowell's  "  grand 
army  "  set  out  in  high  spirits,  July  16,  accompanied  by  many 
of  the  congressmen 3  and  officials  in  Washington,  who  went  to 
see  the  "  rebellion  crushed  by  a  single  blow."    The  battle  (on 

1  The  quartermaster's  department  has  charge  of  the  transportation  of  all  the 
baggage,  food,  clothing,  and  blankets  of  the  army,  and  the  provision  of  all  sup 
plies  except  food  and  ordnance  materials.   The  commissariat  department's  busi 
ness  is  to  provide  the  supplies  of  food  for  the  soldiers. 

2  Johnston,  like  Lee,  was  a  gift  of  Virginia  to  the  Confederacy.     He  was 
a   graduate   of  West   Point,  and  at  the   opening   of   the  war  he  resigned   a 
higher  position  in  the  United  States  army  than  any  other  officer  that  joined  the 
Confederacy. 

3  It  will  be  recalled  that  Lincoln,  in  his  proclamation  of  April  15,  had  sum 
moned  Congress  to  meet  in  extra  session  on  July  4,  1861.   This  Congress  rati 
fied  Lincoln's  acts  in  calling  out  the  militia,  blockading  the  Southern  ports,  and 
using  his  extraordinary  authority  in  time  of  war  to  interfere  with  the  regular 
procedure  of  the  courts.    Lincoln  asked  Congress  for  $400,000,000  and  400,000 
men.    It  voted  him  500,000  men. 


440 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


637.   McClel- 
lan  in  com 
mand  of  the 
Union  army 


638.  The 
Peninsular 
campaign , 
March- 
July,  1862 


the  twenty-first)  was  well  planned  and  bravely  fought.  Up  to 
early  afternoon  the  advantage  was  with  the  Union  troops,1  but1 
at  the  critical  moment  Johnston's  army,  which  had  eluded  Pat 
terson  and  hastened  eastward  at  the  sound  of  the  firing,  ap 
peared  on  the  field  and  turned  the  Union  victory  into  a  rout. 
The  undisciplined  soldiers  of  McDowell,  wearied  with  the  day's 
fighting,  threw  down  their  muskets  and  fled  to  the  Potomac. 
For  two  days  they  straggled  into  Washington,  and  the  capital 
was  in  a  panic  for  fear  Beauregard  and  Johnston  would  come 
on  their  heels. 

The  disaster  at  Bull  Run  (or  Manassas,  as  the  Confederates 
called  the  battle)  sobered  the  overconfident  enthusiasm  of  the 
Northerners,  but  did  not  destroy  their  determination.  They 
set  to  work  in  earnest  to  prepare  for  the  long,  severe  struggle 
that  was  before  them.  George  B.  McClellan,  a  young  general 
who  had  done  brilliant  work  in  holding  West  Virginia  for -the 
Union  in  May  and  June,  was  now  put  in  command  of  the  army 
on  the  Potomac.  McClellan  was  a  magnificent  organizer  and 
drillmaster,  and  by  the  autumn  of  1861  he  had  the  180,000 
men  who  poured  into  his  camp  in  response  to  Lincoln's  call, 
organized  into  a  splendid  army,  nearly  three  times  the  size  off 
the  opposing  forces  under  Lee  and  Johnston.  The  aged  Gen 
eral  Scott  resigned  on  the  last  day  of  October,  and  McClellan 
was  made  general  in  chief  of  the  forces  of  the  United  States. 

McClellan  could  and  should  have  taken  Richmond  in  the 
autumn  of  1861,  but  he  was  cautious  to  the  point  of  timidity. 
Personally  brave,  he  feared  for  the  magnificent  army  under  his^ 
command.  He  magnified  the  enemy's  forces  to  three  times 
their  actual  number,  and  looked  on  the  loss  of  a  brigade  from 
his  own  army  as  a  great  calamity.  He  berated  Lincoln  and 
Stanton  for  not  sending  him  more  reinforcements.2  It  was  not 

1  Jefferson  Davis,  who  came  in  person  from  Richmond  to  the  battlefield  in 
the  afternoon,  was  met  by  fleeing  Confederate  soldiers,  who  told  him  that  the 
battle  was  lost. 

2  McClellan  took  it  upon  himself  to  criticize  the  administration  at  Washing 
ton  unsparingly,  spoke  of  the  "  insane  folly  "  of  Stanton  and  Chase,  and  constantly 


The  Civil  War  441 

until  well  into  the  spring  of  1862  that  McClellan,  after  repeated 
orders  from  Washington  to  advance,  began  to  move  up  the 
peninsula  between  the  York  and  James  rivers  toward  Rich 
mond.  Even  then  the  Peninsular  campaign,  which  should  have 
been  a  steady  triumphal  march  to  the  Confederate  capital, 
like  Scott's  march  from  Vera  Cruz  up  to  the  city  of  Mexico  in 
1847,  was  a  slow,  guarded  approach  of  many  weeks'  duration, 
as  if  against  an  enemy  vastly  superior  in  forces.  Once,  within 
four  miles  of  Richmond,  and  already,  within  sight  of  its  church 
spires,  McClellan  retreated  because  Lincoln  detained  McDow 
ell's  division  of  40,000  men  to  protect  Washington.1  Lee  and 
Johnston  were  quick  to  seize  the  moment  of  the  deliverance  of 
Richmond  to  turn  in  pursuit  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Mc 
Clellan,  always  masterly  on  the  defensive,  won  several  engage 
ments  from  his  pursuers,  finally  routing  them  decisively  at 
Malvern  Hill  (July  i,  1862)  in  one  of  the  severest  battles  of  the 
war.  Richmond  again  lay  within  his  grasp,  but  instead  of  ad 
vancing,  he  led  his  victorious  army  back  to  Harrisons  Landing 
on  the  James  River  within  reach  of  the  Union  gunboats.  The 
famous  Peninsular  campaign  was  ended.  Richmond  was  still 
undisturbed.  President  Lincoln  removed  McClellan  from  the 
command  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  July  n,  1862. 


prated  about  "  saving  the  country."  To  Stanton,  who  had  assumed  the  War  port 
folio  in  January,  1862,  displacing  Cameron,  he  wrote  :  "  You  must  send  me  large 
reinforcements,  and  send  them  at  once.  ...  If  I  save  this  army  now,  I  tell  you 
plainly  that  I  owe  no  thanks  to  you  or  to  any  other  persons  in  Washington 
[President  Lincoln],  You  have  done  your  best  to  sacrifice  this  army."  Remark 
able  language  for  a  commander  with  an  army  already  more  than  double  the 
strength  of  his  adversaries  to  use  to  his  superiors  in  Washington ! 

1  The  cause  of  the  detention  of  McDowell's  troops  was  the  campaign  of  Gen 
eral  Thomas  J.  Jackson  in  the  Shenandoah  valley.  This  wonderful  commander 
(a  third  great  Virginian,  with  Lee  and  Johnston)  with  an  army  of  17,000  men 
had  defeated  and  outwitted  50,000  Union  troops  in  the  valley,  and  threatened  the 
capital  so  effectively  that  the  eyes  of  the  administration  were  drawn  off  the  army 
of  the  Potomac.  It  was  Jackson  who  saved  Richmond.  Jackson  was  a  rare  com 
bination  of  fighter  and  religious  fanatic,  not  unlike  Oliver  Cromwell.  At  the 
battle  of  Bull  Run  one  of  his  fellow  generals  said  to  his  troops,  "  Look  at  Jackson 
standing  there  firm  as  a  stone  wall !  "  From  this  remark  the  general  got  the  name 
"  Stonewall "  Jackson. 


44 2  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

639.  The  A  year  had  passed  since  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  yet  the 

blockade  and  Union  arms  had  made  no  progress  in  Virginia.  But  the  United 
affair^*"*  States  navy,  under  the  efficient  management  of  Secretary  Welles, 
November-  nacj  accomplished  important  results.  First,  it  had  established  so 
1861  effective  a  blockade  along  the  3000  miles  of  the  Confederate 

coast  that  the  exports  of  cotton  dropped  in  value  from  $202,- 
000,000  in  1860  to  $4,000,000  in  1862.  The  Southerners, 
especially  after  their  victory  at  Bull  Run,  could  not  believe  that 
Great  Britain  would  stand  by  quietly  and  allow  the  North  to 
shut  off  her  cotton  supply  by  a  blockade.  Their  expectations 
of  British  intervention  were  heightened  almost  to  a  certainty 
when,  in  November,  1861,  Captain  Wilkes  of  the  Union  war 
sloop  San  Jacinto  stopped  the  British  mail  steamer  Trent  as 
she  was  sailing  from  Havana,  forcibly  removed  from  her  deck 
the  Confederate  commissioners  to  Great  Britain  and  France, 
Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell,  and  took  them  as  prisoners  to  Fort 
Warren  in  Boston  harbor.  The  deed  was  hailed  with  rejoicing 
in  the  North.  The  Navy  Department  congratulated  Wilkes, 
and  the  House  of  Representatives  gave  him  a  formal  vote  of 
thanks.  The  South  was  in  high  hopes  that  this  insult  to  the 
British  flag  would  involve  the  administration  at  Washington  in 
a  war  with  England,  and  the  Queen's  government  began,  in 
fact,  to  send  troops  to  Canada.  But  the  sober  sense  of  Lin 
coln,  Seward,  and  Sumner l  realized  that  Wilkes's  act,  however 
gratifying  to  public  sentiment  in  the  North,  was  a  high-handed 
outrage  of  the  principle  of  the  inviolability  of  vessels  of  neutral 
nations,  for  the  defense  of  which  we  had  gone  to  war  with  Great 
Britain  in  1812.  Consequently,  Seward  informed  the  British 
minister,  Lord  Lyons,  on  December  26,  that  the  prisoners  in 
Fort  Warren  would  be  "  cheerfully  liberated."  Mason  and  Slidell 
were  given  up,  the  British  government  was  satisfied,  and  the 
blockade  of  the  Southern  ports  continued  undisturbed. 

1  Charles  Sumner  of  Massachusetts  was  the  chairman  of  the  Senate  commit 
tee  on  foreign  relations.  He  did  a  great  deal  to  win  the  reluctant  sympathy  of 
the  English  people  for  the  Northern  cause. 


The  Civil  War 


443 


The  Northern  navy  won  a  notable  victory  in  a  strange  kind  640.  The 
of  battle  that  took  place  in  Hampton  Roads,  Virginia,  March  9,  th^Montor, 
1862.    The   Confederates  had  raised  the  sunken  hull   of  the  March  9,  1862 
Merrimac  at  the  Norfolk  navy  yards,  and,  covering  her  with 
a    sloping    roof    of    iron   rails    smeared   with    plumbago   and 
tallow,  had  made  of  her  the  first  "  ironclad  "  in  the  history  of 
naval  warfare.    This  formidable  craft,  rechristened  the  Virginia, 
easily  destroyed  two  of  the  finest  ships  of  our  wooden  navy  in 
Hampton  Roads,  on  March  8,  and  waited  only  for  the  morrow 
to  destroy  the  rest  of  the  fleet 'and  then  sail  up  the  Potomac  to 
shell  the  city  of  Wash 
ington.    But  that  same  --^fH 
night  there  arrived  at 
Hampton  Roads  from 
New  York  a  stranger 
war  vessel  even  than 
the  Virginia.  This  was 
the  Monitor  (invented 
by  Captain  Ericsson),  a 
small  iron  craft  shaped 
like    a   torpedo   boat, 
her  decks   flush  with 
the  water,  and  having 

amidships  a  revolving  gun  turret  rising  only  a  few  feet.  A  witty 
observer  called  the  boat "  a  cheese  box  on  a  raft."  The  Moni 
tor  placed  herself  between  the  Virgi?iia  and  the  wooden  ships 
of  our  navy,  and  after  an  all-day  fight  drove  the  dreaded  Con 
federate  ram  back  to  the  Virginia  shore.  The  wooden  ships 
were  saved,  but  at  the  same  time  they  were  made  forever  obso 
lete.  This  first  battle  in  history  between  ironclads  announced 
that  henceforth  the  world's  navies  were  to  be  ships  of  steel. 

While  the  wearisome  and  futile  Peninsular  campaign  was 
dragging  through  the  spring  months  of  1862,  relieved  only 
by  the  victory  of  the  Monitor,  the  Union  arms  were  making 
splendid  progress  in  the  West. 


The  Virginia  destroying  the  Cumberland 
in  Hampton  Roads 


444 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


641.  The 
campaign  on 
the  Missis 
sippi 


642.  Grant's 
victories  at 
Forts  Henry 
and  Donelson, 
and  at  Shi- 
loh,  Febru 
ary-April, 
1862 


Of  equal  importance  to  the  Union  cause  with  the  blockade 
of  the  Southern  ports  and  the  hoped-for  capture  of  Richmond, 
was  the  opening  of  the  Mississippi  River,  which  the  Confed 
erates  held  from  its  junction  with  the  Ohio  down  to  its  mouth. 
The  possession  of  the  river  would  bring  the  Unionists  the  double 
advantage  of  freeing  an  outlet  for  the  commerce  of  the  North 
western  states,  and  cutting  off  the  states  of  Arkansas,  Louisiana, 
and  Texas  from  the  rest  of  the  Confederacy.  The  credit  for 
accomplishing  this  great  work  belongs,  more  t«han  to  all  others, 
to  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  Captain  David  G.  Farragut. 

Grant  (born  in  Ohio  in  1822)  was  a  graduate  of  West  Point. 
He  had  served  creditably  in  the  Mexican  War,  but  since  its 
close  had  led  a  thriftless  and  rather  intemperate  life.  The  out 
break  of  the  Civil  War  found  him,  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine, 
working  in  a  leather  and  hardware  store  in  Galena,  Illinois,  and 
dependent  on  his  father  for  the  support  of  wife  and  family.  But 
the  call  to  war  transformed  the  poor  business  man  into  a  military 
genius  of  the  highest  order.  In  February,  1862,  with  the  con 
sent  of  General  H.  W.  Halleck,  who  commanded  the  Union 
armies  of  the  West,  Grant  seized  the  very  important  forts,  Henry 
and  Donelson,1  near  the  mouths  of  the  Tennessee  and  Cum 
berland  rivers,  and  carried  his  victorious  army  up  the  Tennes 
see  River,  a  hundred  miles  across  the  state  of  Tennessee,  to 
Pittsburg  Landing. 

While  waiting  here  for  the  arrival  of  General  BuelPs  army, 
which  Halleck  had  ordered  to  join  him  from  Nashville,  Grant 
was  attacked  by  a  superior  force  under  General  Albert  S. 
Johnston,  the  best  Confederate  general  in  the  West.  The  terrific 
battle  of  Shiloh  (or  Pittsburg  Landing)  lasted  two  days  (April 

1  These  forts,  built  at  points  where  the  two  great  rivers  were  but  twelve 
miles  apart,  both  secured  the  navigation  of  the  rivers  and  strengthened  the 
Confederate  line  of  defense,  which  extended  from  Columbus,  Kentucky,  on  the 
Mississippi,  eastward  across  the  state  (see  map,  p.  438).  Grant  captured  17,000 
troops,  with  large  quantities  of  supplies,  at  Donelson.  To  the  request  of  the  Con 
federate  general  as  to  the  terms  of  capitulation,  Grant  replied,  "  Unconditional 
surrender."  The  phrase  stuck  to  him,  and  U.  S.  Grant  became  in  popular  lan 
guage  "  Unconditional  Surrender  "  Grant. 


The  Civil  War  445 

6-7,  1862).  At  nightfall  of  the  first  day  the  Union  troops  had 
been  driven  back  to  the  bluffs  along  the  river ;  but  before  morn 
ing  BuelPs  army  arrived,  and  the  second  day's  fighting  was 


General  Ulysses  S.  Grant 

a  triumph  for  the  Union  side.  The  Confederates  fell  back  to 
Corinth,  Mississippi.  They  had  lost  10,000  men,  but  could  better 
have  spared  10,000  more  than  lose  their  gallant  commander, 
General  Johnston,  who  was  killed  on  the  field.  The  capture  of 


446  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

Forts  Henry  and  Donelson  and  the  victory  of  Shiloh  cleared 

western  Tennessee  of  Confederate  troops,1  while  General  John 

Pope  and  Commodore  Foote  in  a  parallel  campaign  brought 

their  gunboats  down  the  Mississippi  and  secured  the  river  as 

far  south  as  the  high  bluffs  of  Vicksburg,  Mississippi. 

643.  Farra-         Meanwhile  the  great  river  was  being  opened  from  the  south- 

Ses  onVthe°"     ern  en^-    New  Orleans,  which  lies  some  one  hundred  and  twenty- 


A  ^n  S"  ^ve  m^es  UP  tne  rrver>  was  protected  by  the  strong  forts,  Jack- 
1862  son  and  St.  Philip,  and  by  a  heavy  "  boom  "  of  chained  and 

anchored  hulks  stretching  a  quarter  of  a  mile  'across  the  cur 
rent  between  the  forts.  On  the  night  of  the  twenty-third  of 
April,  1862,  Captain  David  G.  Farragut,  in  a  most  spectacular 
battle,  broke  the  boom  and  ran  the  gantlet  of  the  fire  of  the 
forts.  New  Orleans  was  left  defenseless.  The  small  Confederate 
army  withdrew,  and  General  B.  F.  Butler  entered  the  city,  which 
he  ruled  for  over  six  months  under  military  regime.  The  capture 
of  New  Orleans  opened  the  river  as  far  north  as  Port  Hudson. 
Thus,  by  midsummer  of  1862,  only  the  high  bluffs  of  Vicksburg 
and  Port  Hudson,  with  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  defenseless 
miles  of  river  bank  between,  were  left  to  the  Confederacy.2 
644.  Ten  These  successes  in  the  West  contrasted  strikingly  with  the 

failure  in  the  delays  and  disappointments  of  the  army  in  the  East  ;  and  when 
Potomac  thC     McClellan  was  relieved  of  his  command  in  July,  it  was  natural 

August,  1862-  that  a  Western  general  should  succeed  him.    Halleck,  under 
June,  1863 

whose  command  the  brilliant  operations  in  Tennessee  had  been 

conducted,  was  called  to  Washington,  July  n,  1862,  as  general 
in  chief  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  to  advise  the  Pres 
ident  and  the  Secretary  of  War;  while  General  Pope8  was 

1  President  Lincoln  immediately  began  the  "  reconstruction  "  of  Tennessee 
by  appointing  Andrew  Johnson  of  that  state  as  military  governor.   Johnson 
was  a  man  of  great  energy  and  ambition,  who  had  worked  his  way  up  from  a 
tailor's  bench  to  the  United  States  Senate.    He  belonged  to  the  "poor  white" 
class  of  the  South,  and  was  an  intensely  loyal  Union  man. 

2  These  two   hundred  and  fifty  miles,  however,  were  very  important  as  a 
"  bridge,"  over  which  came  immense  stores  of  Louisiana  sugar  and  Texas  beef 
and  grain  for  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy. 

8  Grant,  who  should  have  been  the  choice,  was  unpopular  with  Halleck,  and 
besides,  his  generalship  at  Shiloh  had  not  been  brilliant. 


The  Civil  War 


447 


given  command  of  a  new  "Army  of  Virginia,"  independent  of 
McClellan's  diminished  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

The  ten  months  that  followed,  from  August,  1862,  to  June, 
1863,  present  a  dreary  record  of  defeat  for  the  Union  cause  in 
Virginia.  General  Lee,  with  his  magnificent  corps  of  lieuten 
ants,  —  "  Stonewall"  Jackson,  Longstreet,  Ewell,  the  Hills,  and 


From  the  "  Photographic  History  of  the  Civil  War."    Copyright  by  Patriot  Publishing  Company 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  Camp 

Stuart,  —  outwitted  and  outfought  the  Union  commanders  at 
every  turn.  Pope  was  beaten  at  a  second  battle  of  Bull  Run 
(August,  1862),  and  his  entire  army  forced  to  retreat  on 
Washington.1  McClellan  was  restored  to  command,2  and  hailed 
with  joy  by  his  old  soldiers.  He  stopped  Lee's  invasion  of 

1  An  especially  humiliating  feature  of  Pope's  defeat  was  the  capture  of  all  his 
stores  and  his  own  headquarters  by  a  brilliant  move  of  "  Stonewall "  Jackson.  The 
stores,  rilling  a  train  of  cars  two  miles  long,  were  burned  after  the  Confederates 
had  taken  all  the  plunder  they  could  carry ;  and  the  light  of  the  costly  bonfire 
could  be  seen  even  from  Washington. 

2  Lincoln,  against  the  determined  protest  of  Stanton,  Halleck,  and  others  in 
high  authority,  declared  that  McClellan  was  the  only  man  available. 


448  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

Maryland1  in  the  bloodiest  single  day's  battle  of  the  war,  at 
Sharpsburg  on  the  Antietam  Creek  (September  16,  1862); 
but  with  his  old  reluctance  to  follow  up  a  victory  by  crushing 
the  foe,  he  let  the  shattered  Confederate  army  get  back  across 
the  Potomac  to  Virginia  soil.  He  was  removed  again  by  the 
distressed  administration  at  Washington,  and  General  Burnside 
was  put  in  his  place,  only  to  suffer  an  awful  repulse  in  his  reck 
less  assault  on  the  heights  of  Fredericksburg  (December  12, 
1862).  Then  General  Joseph  Hooker,  "  Fighting  Joe,"  who 
succeeded  Burnside,  was  routed  in  the  three  days'  fight  at 
Chancellorsville  (May  1-4,  i863).2 

645.  The  The   early  months   of    1863   mark   the  lowest  ebb   of  the 

lowest  point 

in  the  Union  fortunes  of  the  Union  cause.    For  nearly  two  years  the  superior 

Federal  forces  in  Virginia  had  been  trying  to  take  Richmond, 
but  they  had  not  been  able  even  to  hold  their  own  position 
south  of  the  Rappahannock.  General  Lee  was  planning  another 
invasion  of  the  North.  Union  soldiers  were  deserting  at  the  rate 
of  a  thousand  a  week,3  and  hundreds  of  officers  were  finding 
excuses  to  leave  the  army  for  "  vacations."  The  attempts  to 
draft  new  recruits  into  the  army  were  met  with  serious  resist 
ance  in  many  states.  In  New  York  City  the  draft  riots  of 
July,  1863,  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  $1,500,000  worth  of 
property  and  the  loss  of  1000  lives.  The  cost  of  the  war  was 
enormous;  the  debt  was  increasing  at  the  rate  of  $2,500,000 

1  Lee  invaded  Maryland  for  the  double  purpose  of  foraging  and  capturing 
Washington.     When   asked  after  the  war  why  he  did   not  move  directly  on 
Washington  after  the  defeat  of  Pope,  he  answered  convincingly  in  a  single 
phrase,  "  Because  my  men  had  nothing  to  eat." 

2  After  a  day's  fighting  at  Chancellorsville,  "  Stonewall "  Jackson,  riding  back 
in  the  twilight  with  his  staff  from  a  reconnoissance,  was   mistaken  by  Con 
federate  sharpshooters   for   a   Union   officer  and   fatally   shot.     His   loss  was 
the  severest  blow  the  Confederate  cause  suffered  during  the  war.    Many  in 
the  South  believe  to  this  day  that,  had  the  life  of  "  Stonewall "  Jackson  been 
spared,  they  would  have  been  successful  in  the  war. 

3  Hooker,  in  his  testimony  to  Congress  explaining  his  defeat  at  Chancellors 
ville,  said  :  "  At  the  time  the  army  was  turned  over  to  me  desertions  were  at  the 
rate  of  two  hundred  a  day.   So  anxious  were  parents,  wives,  brothers,  and  sisters 
of  volunteers  to  relieve  their  kindred,  that  they  filled  the  trains  to  the  ^rmy  with 
packages  of  citizens'  clothing  to  assist  them  in  escaping  from  the  service." 


The  Civil  War  449 

a  day.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  having  difficulty  in 
borrowing  enough  money  to  keep  the  army  in  the  field.  A  wide 
spread  conviction  that  Lincoln's  administration  was  a  failure 
was  shown  by  the  triumph  of  the  Democrats  in  the  elections 
of  1862  in  such  important  states  as  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin.  Clement 
Vallandigham,  of  Ohio,  declared  in  a  speech  in  the  House 
early  in  the  year  1863  :  "  You  have  not  conquered  the  South. 
You  never  will.  .  .  .  Money  you  have  expended  without  limit, 
and  blood  poured  out  like  water.  .  .  .  Defeat,  debt,  taxation, 
and  sepulchers,  —  these  are  your  only  trophies."  ] 

But  the  darkest  hour  is  the  hour  before  the  dawn.  In  June, 
1863,  the  Southern  hopes  were  high.  In  the  West  the  great 
fortress  of  Vicksburg,  which  Grant  and  Sherman  had  been 
manoeuvering  against  for  months,  still  blockaded  the  lower 
Mississippi  to  the  Union  fleets ;  and  in  the  East,  General  Lee, 
at  the  height  of  his  power  and  popularity,  was  crossing  the 
Potomac  northward  with  a  magnificent  army  of  75,000  veterans. 
But  on  the  fourth  of  July,  Lee  was  leading  his  defeated  army 
back  to  the  Potomac  after  the  tremendous  fight  at  Gettysburg, 
while  General  Grant  was  entering  Vicksburg  in  triumph. 

The  battle  of  Gettysburg  (July  1-3,  1863)  was  the  most  im-  646.Thebat- 
portant  battle  of  the  war,  and  the  only  one  fought  on  the  free  burg 
soil  of  the  North.2    Knowing  the  widespread  discouragement 
in  the  Northern  states  and  the  dissatisfaction  in  many  quarters 
with  Lincoln's  conduct  of  the  war,  Lee  hoped  that  a  brilliant 
stroke  as  near  New  York  as  he  could  get  might  terrify  the 

1  Vallandigham   was  afterwards   arrested   by  General  Burnside   and   court- 
martialed  for    treason.     Lincoln,  as   a  grim    sort  of  joke,  made  his   punish 
ment  exile  into  the  lines  of  the  Confederacy.    Edward  Everett  H ale's  famous 
story  "  The  Man  without  a  Country,"  appearing  'in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for 
December,  1863,  was  written  to  show  the  sad  failure  of  such  unpatriotic  con 
duct  as  Vallandigham's. 

2  There  were  several  "  raids  "  into  Northern  territory — in  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Pennsylvania — by  the  renowned  "irregular"  cavalry  rangers  of  Morgan,  Mosby, 
and  Stuart.   But--these  raids  succeeded  only  in  terrorizing  a  few  villages  and 
plundering  such  booty  as  the  flying  horsemen  could  take  with  them.     They 
were  a  foolish,  unproductive  kind  of  warfare. 


450 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


Northern  bankers,  and  lead  them  to  compel  the  administra 
tion  to  stop  the  war  for  lack  of  funds  and  recognize  the  South 
ern  Confederacy.  General  George  G.  Meade,  who  had  just 


•111 


General  Robert  E.  Lee 


succeeded  Hooker  (June  27)  in  the  .command  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  met  Lee's  attack  with  his  fine  army  of  over  80,000 
men  securely  posted  on  the  heights  of  Round  Top  and  Ceme 
tery  Ridge,  south  of  the  town  of  Gettysburg. 


The  Civil  War  451 

The  first  and  second  days'  fighting  (July  i,  2)  were  favorable 
to  the  Confederates,  but  reinforcements  kept  pouring  in  for 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and,  in  spite  of  heavy  losses,  the 
Federal  position  was  being  strengthened  from  hour  to  hour. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  third  day  of  the  fight  General  Meade 
had  over  90,000  men  posted  on  the  heights  above  and  around 
Gettysburg. 

Lee,  fagged  with  his  immense  labors,  and  desperate  in  his  647.  pick- 
demand  for  victory,  now  failed  for  once  in  generalship.  Disre 
garding  the  almost  tearful  remonstrances  of  General  Longstreet, 
he  sent  General  Pickett  with  15,000  men,  the  flower  of  the 
Confederate  infantry,  to  carry  by  storm  the  impregnable  posi 
tion-  of  the  Union  troops,  under  General  W.  S.  Hancock,  on 
Cemetery  Ridge.  It  was  the  most  dramatic  moment  of  the  war, 
as  Pickett's  splendid  column,  in  perfect  order,  swept  across 
the  wide  plain  which  separated  the  two  armies  and  dashed  up 
the  opposite  hill  in  the  face  of  the  withering  fire  of  the  Union 
guns.  The  men  went  down  like  grain  before  a  hailstorm,  but 
still  there  was  no  pause.  A  hundred  led  by  Armistead  pierced 
the  Union  line  and  planted  the  flag  of  the  Confederacy  on  the 
ridge,  —  the  "high-water  mark  of  the  Rebellion."  But  no 
human  bravery  could  stand  against  the  blasting  wall  of  fire 
that  closed  in  upon  Pickett's  gallant  men.  The  line  wavered, 
then  stopped,  then  bent  slowly  backward,  and  broke.  The  day, 
the  battle,  and  the  Southern  cause  were  lost ! 

The  next  day,  the  "  glorious  fourth "  of  July,  at  evening,  648.  The  fail 
while  the  North  was  celebrating  the  great  victory  of  Gettys- 
burg,  General  Lee  began  his  slow  retreat  to  the  Potomac 
through  a  heavy,  dismal  storm  of  rain.  Lee's  grief  and  chagrin 
would  have  been  doubled  had  he  known  that,  on  that  same 
dismal  fourth  of  July,  General  Pemberton,  after  a  valiant 
defense  of  six  months  against  the  superior  strategy  and  num 
bers  of  Grant  and  Sherman,  had  surrendered  the  stronghold 
of  Vicksburg,  with  170  cannon  and  50,000  rifles,  and  had  de 
livered  over  his  starving  garrison  of  30,000  men  as  prisoners  of 


452  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

war.1  Five  days  after  the  fall  of  Vicksburg,  Port  Hudson 
yielded,  and  the  Mississippi  was  again  a  Union  stream  from 
source  to  mouth.  "  The  Father  of  Waters,"  wrote  Lincoln 
exultantly,  "  goes  again  un vexed  to  the  sea." 

THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  NORTH 

649.  The  The  victories  at  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg  were  the  turning 

of 'the  war  point  of  the  war.  Not  that  the  South  as  yet  acknowledged 
defeat  or  even  distress.  On  the  contrary,  the  tone  of  her  press 
and  the  utterances  of  her  public  men  were  more  confident 
than  ever.  Newspapers  in  Richmond  and  Charleston  actually 
hailed  Gettysburg  as  a  Confederate  victory,  presumably  because 
Lee  had  been  allowed  to  withdraw  his  shattered  army  across 
the  Potomac  without  molestation.2  But  to  men  who  did  not  let 
their  zeal  blind  them  to  facts,  the  disasters  which  overtook  the 
Confederacy  at  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg  appeared  to  be  almost 
beyond  repair.  It  was  not  alone  the  loss  of  60,000  soldiers  from 
armies  in  which  every  man  was  sorely  needed  that  made  those 
midsummer  days  of  1863  so  calamitous  to  the  South.  It  was 
even  more  the  change  which  they  brought  in  the  public  senti 
ment  of  the  North,  in  the  attitude  of  Great  Britain  toward  the 
Confederacy,  and  in  the  plan  of  campaign  of  the  Union 
commanders. 

1  The  siege  of  Vicksburg  was  the  only  protracted  siege  of  the  war.   The 
shelling  of  the  city  by  Grant's  mortars  was  so  severe  that  many  of  the  people 
lived  in  underground  caves,  and  the  inhabitants  and  garrison  were  compelled  to 
eat  mules,  rats,  and  even  shoe  leather  to  keep  from  starvation.    Pemberton  held 
out  as  long  as  he  did  in  the  constant  hope  that  Johnston  might  break  through 
Grant's  lines  and  come  to  his  relief. 

2  Lincoln  was   much  distressed  that  Meade   did  not  follow  Lee  up  after 
Gettysburg,  and  crush  his  army  before  it  could  get  back  over  the  Potomac. 
"  We  had  them  in  our  grasp,"  he  said  ;  "  we  had  only  to  stretch  forth  our  hands 
and  they  were  ours."   To  Meade  he  wrote  a  kindly  letter  of  censure  :  "  I  do  not 
believe  you   appreciate  the   magnitude  of  the  misfortune  involved  in    Lee's 
escape.  .  .  .  Your  golden  opportunity  is  gone  and  I  am  distressed  immeasurably 
because  of  it."    Still  Meade  was  not  relieved  of  his  command.    His  army  slowly 
followed  Lee  into  Virginia  and,  after  some  unimportant  skirmishing,  went  into 
winter  quarters  at  Culpeper,  about  seventy-five  miles  northwest  of  Richmond. 


The  Civil  War  453 

In  the  North  the  bankers,  whose  cash  vaults  Lee  hoped  to  650.  Finan 
close  tightly  by  his  invasion  of  Pennsylvania,  now  lent  to  the 
government  freely;  and  private  individuals  bought  millions  of 
dollars'  worth  of  the  "  coupon  bonds  "  issued  to  support  the  war. 
Secretary  Chase  had  been  obliged  to  pay  7.3  per  cent  interest 
on  money  loaned  the  government  in  1861,  when  the  public 
debt  was  less  than  $100,000,000;  now,  however,  he  could 
borrow  all  he  wanted  at  6  per  cent,  although  the  debt  had  risen 
to  over  $1,000,000,000.  The  rate  of  interest  at  which  a 
country  can  borrow  money  is  always  an  index  of  the  confi 
dence  the  people  have  in  the  stability  of  the  government.  Presi 
dent  Lincoln,  in  his  annual  message  to  Congress,  December, 
1863,  could  say  :  "  All  the  demands  on  the  Treasury,  including 
the  pay  of  the  army  and  navy,  have  been  promptly  met  and 
fully  satisfied.  ...  By  no  people  were  the  burdens  incident 
to  a  great  war  ever  more  cheerfully  borne." x 

1  The  financial  operations  of  a  government  are  very  difficult  to  make  plain 
to  the  general  reader.  Therefore,  although  the  problems  of  the  Treasury  were 
fully  as  critical  a  feature  of  the  war  as  the  campaigns  of  the  generals,  little  is 
said  about  them  in  the  text.  It  may  be  stated  in.  general  that  the  government 
incurred  a  debt  of  over  $3,000,000,000  in  prosecuting  the  Civil  War.  It  raised 
its  funds  chiefly  by  issues  of  interest-bearing  bonds,  —  promises  to  pay  back 
the  money  borrowed  at  the  end  of  twenty  or  thirty  years.  Secretary  Chase,  early 
in  1863,  devised  a  very  effective  method  of  selling  these  bonds,  by  the  creation 
of  the  national-bank  system.  Any  group  of  five  men,  furnishing  a  capital  of 
$300,000,  might  be  granted  a  charter  by  the  national  government  to  organize  a 
banking  business.  If  they  purchased  United  States  bonds  and  deposited  them  at 
Washington,  they  were  allowed  to  issue  notes  ("  bank  bills  ")  up  to  the  value  of  90 
per  cent  (since  1900,  up  to  the  full  value)  of  the  bonds,  and  the  government  as 
sumed  the  responsibility  for  paying  these  notes  if  the  bank  failed.  The  bankers^ 
of  course,  besides  receiving  the  interest  from  their  bonds  on  deposit,  made  a  profit 
by  lending  their  notes  (or  credit)  to  their  customers  at  a  fair  rate  of  interest. 
The  national-bank  system  was  a  benefit  to  all  parties  concerned.  It  enabled  the 
government  to  sell  its  bonds  readily  ;  it  gave  the  capitalists  of  the  country  a 
chance  to  make  a  profit  on  their  bank  notes  ;  and  it  gave  the  borrowing  public 
a  currency  which  was  "  protected  "  by  the  government,  whether  the  bank  issuing 
it  succeeded  or  failed.  There  were  in  1910  some  7000  national  banks  in  the  United 
States,  with  an  aggregate  capital  of  over  $6,000,000,000.  These  national  banks 
are  not  to  be  confused  with  the  National  Bank  of  1791-1811,  1816-1836.  They  are 
private  institutions,  and  enjoy  none  of  the  government's  favors  such  as  are 
described  on  page  191.  They  are  called  "national"  simply  because  they  are 
chartered  and  inspected  by  the  national  government. 


454  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

651.  Effect  of  In  England,  though  the  Trent  affair  had  been  satisfactorily 
of  Gettysburg  adjusted,  the  sympathy  of  the  higher  classes  of  society  and  of 
hD?  Vln1£n  most  °f  the  government  officials  was  decidedly  in  favor  of  the 
land  South.    The   long    series    of    Federal   reverses   in    1862    had 

strengthened  their  belief  that  President  Lincoln's  government 
would  fail  to  restore  the  Union.  Men  in  high  positions  in  the 
British  government  openly  expressed  their  confidence  in  the 
Southern  cause.1  British  capitalists  bought  $10,000,000  worth 
of  Confederate  bonds  offered  them  at  the  beginning  of  1863, 
when  the  Southern  cause  looked  brightest.  The  fall  of  Vicksburg 
sent  the  bonds  down  20  per  cent  in  value.  The  British  people 
woke  with  a  shock  from  their  dream  of  an  "  invincible  South," 
and  all  hope  of  aid  from  Great  Britain,  as  President  Davis 
sorrowfully  acknowledged  in  his  next  message  to  the  Con 
federate  Congress,  was- lost.2 

652.  The  The  effect  of  the  victories  at  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg  on 
campaign11  °    the  conduct  of  the  war  was  also  important.   Up  to  the  middle 

July'  of  the  year  1863  there  had  been  no  cooperation  between  the 
Union  armies.  The  Army  of  the  Potomac,  in  Virginia,  had  been 
battling  in  vain  to  break  through  Lee's  defense  of  Richmond. 
The  army  on  the  Mississippi  had  been  slowly  accomplishing 
its  great  task  of  opening  the  river.  Meanwhile  a  third  army 
under  Buell,  and  later  under  Rosecrans,  had  with  difficulty  been 
defending  central  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  from  the  advance 
of  the  Confederate  general  Braxton  Bragg,  and  had  at  last  forced 

1  Mr.  Gladstone,  then  a  cabinet  minister,  said  in  a  speech  at  Newcastle,  Octo 
ber  7,  1862:  "There  is  no  doubt  that  Jefferson  Davis  and  other  leaders  of 
the  South  have  made  an  army ;  they  are  making,  it  appears,  a  navy ;  and  they 
have  made  what  is  more  than  either,  —  a  nation.  .  .  .  We  may  anticipate  with 
certainty  the  success  of  the  Southern  states  so  far  as  their  separation  from  the 
North  is  concerned." 

2  While   Mason  was  trying  to  get  help  in  England  for  the  Confederacy, 
Slidell  was  busy  on  the  same  errand  in  France.    At  a  meeting  with  Emperor 
Napoleon  III,  in  July,  1862,  Slidell  made  the  offer  of  100,000  bales  of  cotton 
(worth  $12, 500,000)  if  Napoleon  would  send  a  fleet  to  break  the  blockade  of 
the  Southern  ports.    Napoleon  made  efforts  to  get  Great  Britain  and  Russia 
to  join  him  in  demanding  from  the  administration  at  Washington  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  South,  but  with  no  success.    After  Gettysburg  all  such  efforts 
were  stopped. 


The  Civil  War 


455 


him  to  retire  to  Chattanooga  in  the  southeastern  corner  of 
Tennessee.1  The  fall  of  Vicksburg  left  the  troops  of  Grant  and 
Sherman  free  to  move  eastward  across  Mississippi  and  Ala 
bama,  driving  Johnston's  inferior  forces  before  them,  and  to 


From  the  "  Photographic  History  of  the  Civil  War."    Copyright  by  Patriot  Publishing  Company 

Waiting  for  Letters  from  Home 

join  with  Rosecrans  at  Chattanooga  and  push  the  Confederate 
armies  across  the  lower  end  of  the  Appalachian  range  into 
Georgia.  While  this  great  flanking  movement  was  going  on 

1  Simultaneously  with  Lee's  invasion  of  Maryland  in  September,  1862,  Bragg 
had  invaded  Kentucky,  appealing  .to  the  proslavery  and  states-rights  sentiment 
in  the  state  with  the  pompous  manifesto,  "  Kentuckians,  I  offer  you  the  oppor 
tunity  to  free  yourselves  from  the  tyranny  of  a  despotic  ruler."  Bragg  brought 
15,000  stands  of  arms  for  the  Kentuckians,  but  they  did  not  join  his  army.  Buell 
turned  him  back  from  Kentucky  in  the  battle  of  Perryville  (October  8,  1862), 
and  Rosecrans,  after  a  tremendous  three  days'  fight  at  Murfreesboro,  Tennessee 
(December  3i-January  2),  compelled  Bragg  to  retire  to  Chattanooga.  The 
acquisition  of  eastern  Tennessee  was  especially  desired  by  Lincoln,  on  account 
of  the  great  number  of  Union  men  in  that  part  of  the  state.  We  have  already 
seen  how,  after  Grant's  victories  at  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson,  Lincoln  had 
appointed  Andrew  Joknson  as  military  governor  of  Tennessee  (p.  446,  note  i). 


456 


Crisis  of  Disunion 


19-20, 1863 


from  the  West,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  to  press  down  on 
Lee  from  northern  Virginia.  So  the  forces  of  the  Confederacy 
would  be  crushed  between  the  two  great  Union  armies  in 
Virginia  and  Georgia.  This  plan  of  wrapping  the  Union  armies 
about  the  Confederacy  and  squeezing  the  life  out  of  it  was 
called  the  "  anaconda  policy."  It  was  in  view  of  this'  coopera 
tion  of  all  the  Union  forces  in  1863  that  General  Sherman 
later  wrote,  "  The  war  did  not  begin  professionally  until  after 
Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg." 

653.  The  Next  to  Richmond  and  Vicksburg,  the  most  important  mili- 

Chickamauga,  tary  position  in  the  Confederacy  was  Chattanooga.  This  city, 
protected  by  the  deep  and  wide  Tennessee  River  on  the  north, 
and  the  high  ridges  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains  on  the  south, 
guarded  the  passes  into  the  rich  state  of  Georgia,  the  "  keystone 
of  the  Confederacy."  Rosecrans,  as  we  have  seen,  confronted 
Bragg  at  Chattanooga  in  the  autumn  of  1863.  Bragg  retired 
before  his  opponent  across  the  Tennessee  River  into  the  moun 
tains  of  the  northeastern  corner  of  Georgia,  then  suddenly  turned 
on  him  at  Chickamauga  Creek,  while  Rosecrans's  army  was 
scattered  in  the  mountain  passes. 

The  battle  of  Chickamauga,  which  followed  Rosecrans's 
•  frantic  effort  to  get  his  army  together  (September  19-20, 
1863),  would  have  been  as  complete  a  disaster  for  the  Union 
cause  as  Bull  Run,  had  it  not  been  for  the  intrepid  conduct  of 
one  man,  General  George  H.  Thomas.  Rosecrans  had  given  a 
blundering  order  which  left  a  wide  gap  in  the  Union  lines. 
Into  this  gap  the  Confederate  regiments  poured,  driving  the 
entire  right  wing  of  Rosecrans's  army  off  the  field  in  a  panic, 
and  sweeping  Rosecrans  with  his  men  back  to  Chattanooga, 
where  he  telegraphed  Halleck  that  his  army  was  "  overwhelmed 
by  the  enemy."  But  General  Thomas  on  the  left,  with  only 
25,000  men,  refused  to  leave  the  field.  Forming  his  men  into 
a  convex  front  like  a  horseshoe,  he  stood  firm  against  the 
furious  onslaught  of  60,000  Confederate  troops,  from  half  past 
three  in  the  afternoon  till  the  deep  twilight  four  hours  later. 


The  Civil  War 


457 


It  was  the  most  magnificent  defensive  fighting  of  the  war.  It 
almost  turned  defeat  into  victory.  It  earned  for  General 
Thomas  the  proud  title  of  the  "  Rock  of  Chickamauga,"  and 
justified  his  promotion  by  Grant  to  the  command  of  the  Army 
of  the  Cumberland  in  place  of  Rosecrans.  After  his  dearly 
bought  victory  at  Chickamauga,  General  Bragg  proceeded  to  lay 
siege  to  Chattanooga. 

General  Grant,  who  had  been  put  in  command  of  the  armies  654.  The  bat- 
of  the  West  as  a  reward  for  his  capture  of  Vicksburg,  now  Chattanooga, 

dispatched  the  Army  of  the  November 

23-25,  1863 

Tennessee  (as  the  Vicksburg 
army  was  henceforth  called), 
under  General  Sherman,  to 
join  Rosecrans  at  Chatta 
nooga,  and,  following  soon 
himself,  was  ready  by  the  mid 
dle  of  November  to  begin 
operations  against  Bragg  and 
Johnston.  The  three  days' 
battle  around  Chattanooga 
(November  23-25)  was  a  fit 
ting  climax  to  Grant's  splen 
did  achievements  of  the  year 
1863.  The  enthusiasm  his 
presence  inspired  in  the  Union 
army  was  unbounded.  On  the 
twenty-fourth  of  November  Hooker  seized  the  top  of  Look 
out  Mountain  in  the  "  Battle  above  the  Clouds."  On  the 
twenty-fifth  General  Thomas's  troops  were  ordered  to  seize 
the  Confederate  rifle  pits  at  the  foot  of  Missionary  Ridge. 
They  seized  the  pits,  and  then,  without  waiting  for  further 
orders,  stormed  up  the  steep  and  crumbling  sides  of  the 
mountain  in  the  face  of  a  deadly  fire  from  thirty  cannon 
trained  on  every  path,  and  drove  the  astounded  Bragg,  with 
his  staff  and  his  choicest  infantry,  from  the  crest  of  the 


General  Philip  H.  Sheridan 


458 


The  Crisis  of  Disztnion 


655.  Grant 
raised  to  the 
command  of 
the  army, 
March  9,  1864 


656.  Plans  of 
Grant  and 
Sherman, 
1864 


hill.1  The  Confederate  general  fled  southward  into  Georgia, 
burning  his  depots  and  bridges  behind  him. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  session  of  Congress,  which  assem 
bled  a  fortnight  after  the  battle  of  Chattanooga,  Representa 
tive  Washburn  of  Illinois  introduced  a  bill  to  revive  the  rank  of 
lieutenant  general,  which  had  not  been  held  by  any  general  in 
the  field  since  George  Washington.  Everybody  knew  that  the 
new  honor  was  intended  for  General  Grant.  The  bill  was 
passed  February  29,  1864,  and  immediately  Grant  was  sum 
moned  to  Washington  by  the  President,  and  in  the  presence  of 
the  cabinet  and  a  few  invited  guests  was  formally  invested  with 
the  rank  of  lieutenant  general  and  the  command,  under  the 
President,  of  all  the  armies  of  the  United  States  (March  9,  1864). 
Grant  made  his  dear  friend  and  companion  in  arms,  General 
William  T.  Sherman,  his  successor  in  the  command  of  the  armies 
of  the  West,  while  he  established  his  own  headquarters  with  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac. 

The  plan  of  campaign  was  now  very  simple.  Sherman,  with 
the  armies  of  the  Ohio  (General  Schofield),  the  Cumberland 
(General  Thomas),  and  the  Tennessee  (General  McPherson), 
100,000  strong,  was  to  advance  from  Chattanooga  to  Atlanta 
against  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who  had  succeeded  Bragg.  Grant, 
with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  (General  Meade  still  nominally 
in  command),  was  to  resume  the  campaign  against  Richmond, 
in  which  McClellan,  Pope,  Burnside,  and  Hooker  had  all  failed. 
Both  Grant  and  Sherman  outnumbered  their  opponents,  Lee 
and  Johnston,  two  to  one ;  but  the  advantage  was  not  so  great 
as  the  size  of  their  armies  would  indicate,  for  Sherman  was  to 
move  through  a  hostile  country,  with  his  base  of  supplies  at 

1  This  impetuous  charge  of  20,000  Union  troops  up  the  sides  of  Missionary- 
Ridge  was  as  dramatic  and  courageous  as  the  famous  charge  of  Pickett's  brigade 
at  Gettysburg.  The  leader  of  the  charge  was  "  Phil  "  Sheridan,  a  young  Irish  gen 
eral,  who  had  distinguished  himself  for  bravery  in  the  battles  of  Perryville  and 
Murfreesboro,  and  who  later  became  the  most  famous  cavalry  commander  in  the 
Union  army.  The  battle  of  Chattanooga  was  the  only  one  of  the  war  in  which 
the  four  greatest  Union  generals  —  Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan,  and  Thomas  — 
took  part. 


The  Civil  War  459 

Louisville,  Kentucky,  hundreds  of  miles  away,  and  leaving  an 
ever-lengthening  line  of  posts  to  be  guarded  in  his  rear ;  while 
Grant  was  assuming  the  offensive  on  soil  which  he  had  never 
trodden  before,  but  every  inch  of  which  was  familiar  to  Lee's 
veterans  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 

On  the  fourth  of  May,  1864,  Grant's  army  crossed  the  Rapi-  657.  The 
dan,  and  began  to  fight  its  way  through  the  Wilderness,  where  campaign, 
Hooker  had  been  defeated  in  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville  just  a  ^"June> 
year  earlier.  Though  his  losses  were  heavy  (17,500  men  in  the 
Wilderness  rights),  Grant  turned  his  face  steadily  toward  Rich 
mond.  "  I  propose  to  fight  it  out  on  this  line,"  he  wrote  Halleck, 
"  if  it  takes  all  summer."  x  At  Cold  Harbor  (June  3)  he  attacked 
Lee's  strongly  fortified  position  in  front,  and  lost  7000  men  in 
an  hour,  in  an  assault  almost  as  rash  as  Burnside's  at  Fredericks- 
burg.2  After  this  awful  battle,  Grant  led  the  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac  down  to  the  James  River  to  renew  the  attack  on  Richmond 
from  the  south.  In  the  Wilderness  campaign  of  forty  days,  from 
the  Rapidan  to  the  James,  Grant  had  lost  55,000  men  (almost  as 
many  as  Lee  had  in  his  entire  army),  but  he  had  at  least  shown 
Lee  the  novel  sight  of  a  Union  commander  who  did  not  retreat 
when  he  was  repulsed  or  rest  when  he  was  victorious. 

1  His  men  were  with  him,  too,  keyed  to  the  highest  pitch  of  enthusiasm.   The 
writer  has  heard  from  the  lips  of  one  of  the  three  surviving  members  of  Company 
A  of  the  Twelfth  Massachusetts  regiment  the  thrilling  story  of  the  resumption 
of  the  march  southward  after  the  terrible  losses  in  the  Wilderness.    The  orders  to 
move  came  one  stormy  evening,  just  as  the  heavy  clouds  were  parting,  and  the  sol 
diers  were  uncertain  whether  the  column  was  headed  northward  in  retreat  or  south 
ward  for  Richmond.   As  they  came  out  upon  an  open  road  and  were  greeted  by 
the  stars,  the  shout  came  from  the  head  of  the  column,  "  Boys,  we  are  leaving  the 
North  Star  behind  us  !  "  "I  have  heard  the  army  cheer  after  victory,"  said  the  vet 
eran,  "  but  I  have  never  heard  cheering  like  that  which  swept  down  the  march 
ing  column  then." 

2  Horace  Porter,  an  aid-de-camp  of  General  Grant,  tells  in  the  Century  Mag 
azine  for  March,  1897,  how  the  brave  Union  soldiers  were  seen  the  night  before 
the  terrible  assault  at  Cold  Harbor  quietly  pinning  on  the  backs  of  their  coats 
slips  of  paper  with  their  name  and  address,  so  that  their  bodies  might  be  taken 
back  to  their  families  in  the  North.    Grant  himself  confesses  in  his  "  Memoirs," 
written  nearly  twenty  years  after  the  battle,  that "  no  advantage  whatever  was  gained 
to  compensate  for  the  heavy  loss  which  we  sustained."   The  attack  at  Cold  Har 
bor  was  a  serious  mistake  on  Grant's  part. 


460 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


658.  Sher 
man  takes 
Atlanta, 
September  3, 
1864 


659.  The 
presidential 
campaign  of 
1864 


Sherman  left  Chattanooga  two  days  after  Grant  crossed  the 
Rapidan  (May  6).  Mile  by  mile  he  forced  Johnston  back,  until 
by  the  middle  of  July  he  was  in  sight  of  Atlanta.  Jefferson 
Davis  replaced  Johnston  by  Hood,  but  it  was  of  no  avail. 
Sherman  beat  Hood  in  several  engagements  before  Atlanta, 
and  entered  the  city  on  the  third  of  September,  1864. 


From  the  "Photographic  History  of  the  Civil  War."    Copyright  by  Patriot  Publishing  Company 

The  Confederate  Trenches  before  Atlanta 

While  Grant  was  fighting  his  way  through  the  Wilderness,  and 
Sherman  was  slowly  advancing  on  Atlanta,  the  national  conven 
tions  met  to  nominate  candidates  for  the  presidential  election 
of  1864.  Secretary  Chase  was  ambitious  for  the  Republican 
nomination,  and  when  one  of  his  friends  in  Congress  published 
a  circular  in  his  behalf,  he  confessed  his  ambition  to  Lincoln,  who 
generously  refused  to  consider  it  a  reason  for  removing  Chase 
from  the  head  of  the  Treasury  Department.  Chase  was  a  very 
able  man,  —  "  about  one  and  a  half  times  bigger  than  any  other 


The  Civil  War  461 

man  I  Ve  known,"  Lincoln  said  once,  —  but  he  was  also  very 
pompous  and  conceited,  and  needed  little  persuasion  to  believe 
that  he  was  indispensable  to  the  country's  salvation.  His  sur 
prise  and  chagrin  were,  therefore,  great  v/hen  his  canvass  fell 
flat  and  Lincoln  was  nominated  by  the  almost  unanimous  vote 
of  the  convention  at  Baltimore  (June  y).1  The  Democrats  met  at 
Chicago  (August  29)  and  nominated  General  McClellan,  rec 
ommending  in  their  platform  that  "  after  four  years  of  failure 
to  restore  the  Union  by  the  experiment  of  war  .  .  .  immediate 
efforts  be  made  for  the  cessation  of  hostilities  .  .  .  and  peace 
be  made  on  the  basis  of  the  federal  union  of  the  states."  2 

All  through  the  summer  of  1864  there  was  doubt  and  dis-  660.  The 
couragement  in  the  Republican  ranks.  Grant's  Wilderness 
campaign  brought  no  comfort  to  the  administration.  Lincoln 
himself  at  one  period  had  no  hope  of  being  reflected.  But  the 
autumn  brought  changes  in  the  Unionist  fortunes.  In  August, 
Admiral  Farragut  sailed  into  the  harbor  of  Mobile,  Alabama, 
by  an  exploit  as  daring  as  the  running  of  the  New  Orleans  forts, 
and  deprived  the  Confederacy  of  its  last  stronghold  on  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  In  September,  Sherman  entered  Atlanta  after  a  four 
months'  campaign  against  Johnston  and  Hood.  And  in  October, 
Sheridan,  by  his  wonderful  ride  up  the  Shenandoah  valley, 
"  from  Winchester  twenty  miles  away,"  literally  turned  defeat 
into  victory  and  saved  Washington  from  the  raid  of  General 
Early's  cavalry.  These  L^nion  victories  were  the  most  powerful 
campaign  arguments  for  the  Republican  cause.  "  Sherman  and 
Farragut,"  cried  Seward,  "  have  knocked  the  bottom  out  of  the 

1  Chase  harbored  some  ill  will  toward  the  administration,  and  on  June  29 
resigned  his  secretaryship  rather  petulantly.    Lincoln  accepted  the  resignation, 
but  showed  his  utter  magnanimity  by  nominating  Chase  to  the  position  of  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  (December  6,  1864),  made  vacant  by  the  death  of 
the  aged  Roger  B.  Taney.    This  gracious  act  drew  from  Chase  a  beautiful  letter 
of  gratitude. 

2  It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  McClellan  did  not  consent  to  the  platform  which 
declared  the  war  a   "  failure."    Nevertheless  it  is  little  credit  to  him,  who  was 
once  in  command  of  the  United  States  armies  and  supported  by  Lincoln  to  the 
utmost  of  the  President's  ability,  to  be  now  associated  with  a  party  that  was  try 
ing  to  discredit  the  war  and  ''  push  Lincoln  from  his  throne." 


462 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


661.  Sher 
man's  march 
to  the  sea, 
September- 
December, 
1864 


Chicago  platform."  Lincoln  was  reelected  in  November  by  an 
electoral  vote  of  212  to  21,  and  a  popular  majority  of  nearly 
500,000.  The  election  meant  the  indorsement  by  the  people 
of  the  North  of  Lincoln's  policy  of  continuing  the  war  until  the 
South  recognized  the  supremacy  of  the  national  government  at 
Washington  throughout  the  United  States. 


Admiral  Farragut  attacking  the  Forts  in  Mobile  Harbor 

Before  the  year  1864  ended,  more  good  news  came  from  the 
seat  of  war.  When  Atlanta  fell,  Hood,  thinking  to  draw  Sher 
man  back  from  further  invasion  of  Georgia,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  regain  Tennessee,  made  a  dash  northward  against 
Thomas,  who  had  been  left  to  protect  Nashville  and  Chatta 
nooga.  Sherman  trusted  the  reliable  Thomas  to  take  care  of 
Tennessee,  and,  boldly  severing  all  connection  with  his  base  of 
supplies,  started  on  his  famous  march  "  from  Atlanta  to  the 
sea,"  300  miles  across  the  state  of  Georgia.  He  met  with  no 
resistance.  The  march  through  Georgia  was  more  like  a  con 
tinuous  picnic  of  three  months  for  his  60,000  troops  than  like 


The  Civil  War 


463 


a  campaign.  They  lived  on  the  fat  of  the  land.  —  the  newly 
gathered  harvests  of  corn  and  grain,  abundance  of  chickens,  tur 
keys,  ducks,  pigs,  and  sweet  potatoes.  Sherman  entered  on  the 
march  with  a  grim  determination  to  make  the  state  of  Georgia 
"  an  example  to  rebels,"  and  he  carried  out  his  threat.  Railroads 
were  torn  up,  public  buildings,  depots,  and  machine  shops 
burned,  stores  of  cotton  destroyed,  10,000  mules  and  horses 
taken,  and  the  military  resources  of  the  state  damaged  beyond 

repair.1  Reaching  the  coast  in 
December,  Sherman  easily  broke 
through  the  weak  defenses  of 
Savannah,  and  on  Christmas  eve 
President  Lincoln  read  a  tele 
gram  from  him  announcing  "  as 
a  Christmas  gift  the  city  of  Savan 
nah,  with  150  heavy  guns,  plenty 
of  ammunition,  and  about  25.000 
bales  of  cotton.'' 

The  success  of  Sherman's  dar-  662.  xhom- 

General  Sherman  ™Z  mar-Ch  dePended  On  the  defeat   at  'ia^SSTe , 

of  Hood's  army.    For  had  Hood  December  15, 

retaken  Tennessee  and  driven  Thomas  back  into  Kentucky,  he 
could  have  turned  eastward  rapidly  and.  summoning  the  Caro- 
linas  to  his  banners,  could  have  confronted  Sherman  (severed 
from  his  base  of  supplies,  and  in  a  hostile  country)  with  a  most 
formidable  army.  But  Thomas  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  On 
the  fifteenth  of  December,  before  Nashville,  he  almost  annihilated 


1  Sherman  has  been  execrated  by  Southern  writers  for  the  "  barbarity  "  of 
his  soldiers  during  this  march  through  Georgia  :  and  it  is  certain  that  much 
irregular  plundering  and  thievery  were  done,  such  as  taking  jewelry  from  women, 
burning  private  houses,  and  wantonly  insulting  the  feelings  of  the  inhabitants. 
Sherman's  chief  of  cavalry,  Kilpatrick.  was  a  coarse  and  brutal  man,  who  was 
responsible  for  much  of  the  damage.  Then  a  crowd  of  "  bummers  "  followed  the 
army,  out  of  the  reach  of  Sherman's  officers.  Although  Sherman  was  severe  in 
this  march,  it  must  be  said  to  his  credit  that  he  gave  orders  to  have  private  property 
respected,  and  there  is  no  complaint  of  his  soldiers'  treating  defenseless  women 
as  the  armies  of  European  conquerors  were  accustomed  to  do. 


464 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


663.  The 
Hampton 
Roads  confer 
ence,  Febru 
ary  3,  1865 


664.  The  fall 
of  Richmond, 
April3,  1865 


665.  Lee's 
surrender  at 
Appomattox, 
April  9,  1865 


Hood's  army,  and  drove  the  remnants  out  of  Tennessee.  The 
battle  of  Nashville  was  the  deathblow  of  the  Confederacy 
west  of  the  Alleghenies.  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  alone  were 
left  to  subdue. 

Before  the  campaign  of  1865  opened,  there  was  an  attempt 
to  close  the  war  by  diplomacy.  On  February  3,  1865,  Vice 
President  Stephens  of  the  Confederacy,  with  two  other  com 
missioners,  met  President  Lincoln  and  Secretary  Seward  on 
board  a  United  States  vessel,  at  Hampton  Roads,  to  discuss 
terms  of  peace.  But  as  Lincoln  would  listen  to  no  terms  what 
ever  except  on  the  basis  of  a  reunited  country,  the  conference 
came  to  naught.  The  Southern  commissioners  were  pleased  to 
interpret  Lincoln's  terms  as  nothing  less  than  "  unconditional 
submission  to  the  mercy  of  the  conquerors."1 

The  next  month  the  Array  of  the  Potomac  renewed  its 
operations  against  Richmond.  The  stronghold  of  Petersburg, 
to  the  south,  fell  on  Sunday,  April  2.  Jefferson  Davis  was  at 
worship  in  St.  Paul's  church  in  Richmond,  when  news  was 
brought  that  the  city  could  no  longer  be  held.  Hastily  collect 
ing  his  papers,  he  fled  with  his  cabinet  southward.  On  the 
third  of  April  the  Union  troops  entered  the  city,  followed  the  next 
day  by  President  Lincoln,  who  spoke  only  words  of  conciliation 
and  kindness  in  "  the  enemy's  capital."  Lee,  with  his  dwindling 
army,  moved  westward  toward  the  mountains,  but  Grant  fol 
lowed  him  hard,  while  Sheridan's  cavalry  encircled  his  forces. 
Brought  to  a  standstill,  Lee  consented  to  listen  to  Grant's 
terms  for  surrender. 

The  two  great  generals  met  in  a  farmhouse  at  Appomattox,  on 
the  ninth  of  April,  1865,  —  Lee,  the  vanquished,  in  full  uniform, 
with  a  jeweled  sword  at  his  side ;  Grant,  the  victor,  in  the  dusty 

1  Jefferson  Davis,  in  a  speech  at  Richmond  on  February  6,  said  of  this 
conference  :  "Mr.  Lincoln  spoke  of  a  common  country.  I  can  have  no  common 
country  with  the  Yankees.  .  .  .  With  the  Confederacy  I  will  live  or  die.  .  .  . 
Thank  God,  I  represent  a  people  too  proud  to  ...  bow  the  neck  to  mortal 
man."  It  is  pleasing  to  think  that  Mr.  Davis  repented  of  this  melodramatic 
bluster  after  the  war  and  advised  the  new  generation  at  the  South  to  aid  in  up 
building  the  prosperity  and  good  feeling  of  our  common  country. 


ui  <£/e>u/ 


tfl  (}l. 

^^^ 

ij  AnL<nr<L--/  JL 


tb, 


Lee's    Letter  to   Grant   respecting  the  Surrender  of  the  Confederate 

Army  of  Northern  Virginia 

465 


466  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

fatigue  coat  of  a  common  soldier,  with  only  the  lieutenant 
general's  stars  on  his  shoulders.  After  a  few  minutes  of 
courteous  conversation  recalling  the  days  of  their  old  com 
radeship  in  arms  in  the  Mexican  War,  Grant  wrote  out  the 
terms  of  surrender.  They  were  generous,  as  befitted  the  recon 
ciliation  of  brother  Americans.  The  Army  of  Northern  Vir 
ginia  was  to  lay  down  its  arms,  but  the  officers  were  to  retain 
their  horses  and  side  arms,  and  even  the  cavalrymen  and  artil 
lerymen  were  to  be  allowed  to  keep  their  horses.  "  They  will 
need  them  for  the  spring  plowing,"  said  Grant,  with  his  won 
derful  simplicity.  Lee  accepted  the  terms  with  sorrowing 
gratitude,  and  surrendered  his  army  of  26,765  men.1  When  the 
Union  soldiers  heard  the  good  news  they  began  to  fire  salutes, 
but  Grant  stopped  them,  saying,  "  The  war  is  over ;  the  rebels 
are  our  countrymen  again."  Lee  had  hinted  that  his  men  were 
hungry,  and  Grant  immediately  ordered  the  distribution  of 
25,000  rations  to  the  Confederate  army. 

666.  The  With  the  fall  of  Richmond  and  the  surrender  of  Lee's  army 
the^nfed-  the  Confederacy  collapsed.2  It  is  a  marvel  that  it  fought  through 
eracy  ^Q  jast  vear  of  tjie  wan  por  ^  gouth  was  brought  to  the 

point  of  actual  destitution.  The  paper  money  which  the  Confed 
eracy  issued  had  depreciated  so  much  that  it  took  $1000  to  buy  a 
barrel  of  flour  and  $30  to  buy  a  pound  of  tea.  Its  credit  was  dead 
in  Europe  and  its  bonds  were  worthless.  When  the  blockade 
of  their  ports  stopped  the  export  of  cotton,  the  Southerners 

1  As  Lee  rode  back  to  his  army  after  the  conference  with  Grant,  the  soldiers 
crowded  around  him,  blessing  him.    Tears  came  to  his  eyes  as  he  made  his  fare 
well  address    of   three  brief  sentences :  "  We  have    fought   through    the   war 
together.    I  have  done  the  best  1  could  for  you.    My  heart  is  too  full  to  say 
more."    At  the  close  of  the  war  this  noble  and  heroic  man  accepted  the  presi-- 
dency  of  Washington  College  in  Virginia,  which  he  served  with  devotion  for  the 
five  years  of  life  that  remained  to  him. 

2  Joseph  E.  Johnston  surrendered  his  army  of  37,000  men  to  Sherman  near 
Durham,  North  Carolina,  on  April  26 ;  Generals  Taylor  in  Alabama  and  Kirby 
Smith  in  Arkansas  turned  over  the  armies  under  their  command  to  the  Union 
officers  in  the  South   and  Southwest.    In  all  174,000  Confederate  soldiers  laid 
down  their  arms  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Jefferson  Davis  was  captured  on  May  10 
at  Irwinville,  Georgia,  and  imprisoned  two  years  at  Fortress  Monroe.    After  his 
release  he  lived  quietly  at  the  South  till  his  death,  December  6,  1889. 


The  Civil  War  467 

planted  their  fields  with  corn  and  grain.  But  the  lack  of  means 
of  transportation  made  it  almost  impossible  to  distribute  the 
products  of  the  farms  to  the  soldiers  at  the  front.  While 
Sherman's  army  was  reveling  in  the  abundance  of  the  farms 
and  harvests  of  central  Georgia,  the  knapsacks  found  on  the 
poor  fellows  who  fell  in  the  defense  of  Richmond  contained 
only  scanty  rations  of  corn  bread  and  bacon.  The  women  of 
the  South,  accustomed  to  handsome  dress  and  dainty  fare,  wore 
homespun  gowns  and  cheap  rough  boots,  and  cheerfully  ate 
porridge  and  drank  "  coffee  "  made  of  roasted  sweet  potatoes. 
They  knew  no  hardships  but  the  failure  of  fathers  and  brothers 
and  sons  in  battle ;  they  were  visited  by  no  calamities  except 
the  presence  of  the  hated  "  Yankee  "  soldier.  It  is  impossible 
for  the  student  of  history  to-day  to  feel  otherwise  than  that  the 
cause  for  which  the  South  fought  the  war  of  1861-1865  was 
an  unworthy  cause,  and  that  the  victory  of  the  South  would 
have  been  a  calamity  for  every  section  of  our  country.  But 
the  indomitable  valor  and  utter  self-sacrifice  with  which  the 
South  defended  that  cause  both  at  home  and  in  the  field  must 
always  arouse  our  admiration. 

Friday,  the  fourteenth  of  April,  1865,  was  a  memorable  day  in 
our  history.  It  was  the  fourth  anniversary  of  the  surrender  of 
Fort  Sumter.  A  great  celebration  was  held  at  Charleston,  and 
General  Robert  Anderson  raised  above  the  fort  the  selfsame  tat 
tered  flag  which  he  had  hauled  down  after  Beauregard's  bombard 
ment  in  1 86 1.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  was  present.  Flowers 
were  strewn  in  his  path  by  the  liberated  slaves.  He  spoke  at 
the  banquet  held  that  evening  in  Charleston,  and  the  echoes  of 
his  voice  reached  a  grave  over  which  stood  a  marble  stone 
engraved  with  the  single  word  "  Calhoun. " 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day  President  Lincoln,  seeking  667.  The 
relief  from  the  crushing  responsibilities  of  his  office,  was  sitting  ofSpresidentn 
in  a  box  at  Ford's  theater  in  Washington,  with  his  wife  and  Lincoln, 
two  guests,  when  a  miserable,  half-crazy  actor  named  Booth 
stepped  into  the  box  and  shot  the  President  in  the  back  of  the 


468 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


head.1  Lincoln  was  carried  unconscious  to  a  private  house 
across  the  street  and  medical  aid  was  summoned.  But  the  pre 
cious  life,  the  most  pre 
cious  of  the  land  and  of  the 
century,  was  ebbing  fast. 
Early  in  the  morning  of 
the  fifteenth  of  April,  sur 
rounded  by  his  prostrated 
family  and  official  friends, 
Abraham  Lincoln  died.  He 
had  brought  the  storm- 
tossed  ship  of  state  safely 
into  port.  The  exultant 
shores  were  ringing  with 
the  people's  shouts  of 
praise  and  rejoicing.  But 
in  the  hour  of  victory  the 
great  Captain  lay  upon  the 
deck  —  "  fallen  cold  and 
dead."  2 

Words  have  no  power  to 
tell  the  worth  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  His  name,  linked 
with  the  immortal  Washing 
ton's,  is  forever  enshrined 
in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people,  for  he  was  the  savior  of 
our  country  as  Washington  was  its  founder  and  father. 

1  The  assassination  of  Lincoln  was  part  of  a  deep-laid  plot  to  kill  several  of 
the  high  officers  of  the  Union.   Secretary  Seward,  who  was  abed  suffering  from 
injuries  received  in  a  runaway  accident,  was  stabbed  severely  the  same  night, 
and  his  son  Frederick  was  injured  while  defending  his  father's  life.    Both  men 
recovered.    Grant  was  proscribed  also,  but  the  assassin  lost  courage  apparently 
after  gazing  into  the  general's  carriage  window.    The  wretch  Booth  fell  to  the 
stage  in  trying  to  escape,  and  broke  his  leg.    He  was  soon  caught  in  a  barn  in 
Virginia,  and  was  shot  after  the  barn  had  been  set  on  fire. 

2  Every  student  should   learn  by  heart  Walt  Whitman's   superb   elegy  on 
Lincoln,  "  O  Captain  !  my  Captain  1 " 


The  House  in  which  Abraham 

Lincoln  died 
Now  used  as  a  Lincoln  Museum 


The  Civil  War  469 

Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame, 
The  kindly-earnest,  brave,  foreseeing  man, 
Sagacious,  patient,  dreading  praise,  not  blame, 
New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American.1 

Stanton,  the  great  Secretary  of  War,  pronounced  Abraham 
Lincoln's  best  eulogy,  when  he  stood  with  streaming  eyes  by 
the  bedside  of  the  martyred  President  and  murmured  with 
choking  voice,  "  Now  he  belongs  to  the  ages." 


EMANCIPATION 

Although  slavery  was  the  cause  of  the  Civil  War,  both  the  668.  Purpose 
North  and  the  South  insisted  that  the  war  was  not  begun  on 
account  of  slavery.  The  South  declared  that  it  was  fighting  for 
its  constitutional  rights,  denied  by  a  hostile  majority  in  Congress 
and  destroyed  by  the  election  of  a  purely  sectional  President ; 
while  the  North,  with  equal  emphasis,  insisted  that  it  took  up 
arms  not  to  free  the  slaves  but  to  preserve  the  Union.  Lincoln 
thought  slavery  a  great  moral,  social,  and  political  evil,  and 
never  hesitated  to  say  so ;  but  he  repeatedly  declared  that 
neither  the  President  nor  Congress  had  any  right  to  interfere 
with  slavery  in  those  states  where  it  was  established  by  law,  and 
assured  the  South  that  he  would  not  attack  their  institution  so 
long  as  it  was  confined  to  those  states.  The  day  after  the  dis 
aster  at  Bull  Run  (July  21,  1861),  both  branches  of  Congress 
passed  a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  "  this  war  is  not  waged  .  .  . 
in  any  spirit  of  oppression,  or  for  any  purpose  of  conquest  or 
subjugation,  or  of  overthrowing  or  interfering  with  the  rights 
or  established  institutions  of  those  [seceding]  states,  but  to 
defend  and  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution." 

But  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  slaves  were  a  valuable  669.  slaves 
war  asset  to  the  South,  and  Congress  began  to  treat  them  as  «™ontrabana  » 
"  property "  which  could  be  confiscated.    In  a  series  of  acts 

1  James  Russell  Lowell,  "  Commemoration  Ode,"  read  at  the  memorial  services 
for  Harvard  men  who  fell  in  the  war  (July  21,  1865). 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

beginning  in  August,  1861,  Congress  declared  that  all  negroes 
employed  in  a  military  capacity  by  the  South,  as  workers  on 
forts  or  trenches  or  in  the  transportation  of  stores  or  ammuni 
tion,  should  be  seized ;  that  slaves  escaping  to  the  Union  lines 
should  not  be  returned ;  and  that  all  slaves  in  places  conquered 
and  held  by  the  Union  armies  should  be  free.  Two  generals  in 
the  field  went  even  further  than  Congress.  Fremont  in  Missouri 
and  Hunter  in  South  Carolina,  on  their  own  responsibility,  issued 
military  proclamations  emancipating  all  the  slaves  in  the  districts 
subject  to  their  authority. 

670.  Lin-  President  Lincoln  signed  the  Confiscation  Acts  of  Congress 

on  emanci-  with  reluctance,  and  immediately  disavowed  and  annulled  the 
I86l~  proclamations  of  Fre'mont  and  Hunter,  to  the  great  disappoint 
ment  of  thousands  of  radical  antislavery  men  of  the  North.  To 
preserve  and  cherish  the  Union  sentiment  in  the  loyal  slave- 
holding  states  of  Kentucky,  Missouri,  and  Maryland,  seemed  to 
him  the  most  immediate  duty  of  his  administration.  If  he  could 
get  these  border  states  to  lead  the  way  in  the  peaceful  emanci 
pation  of  their  slaves,  he  was  in  hopes  that  their  example  would 
prevail  with  the  states  in  secession  further  south.  At  any  rate, 
he  was  sure  that  any  hasty  measures  for  negro  emancipation, 
either  by  Congress  or  by  the  military  authorities,  would  drive 
these  border  slave  states  into  the  Confederacy  and  make  more 
difficult  the  task  of  preserving  the  Union. 

Accordingly  the  President,  in  a  special  message  to  Congress, 
March  6,  1862,  recommended  that  a  law  be  passed  pledging 
the  United  States  government  to  cooperate  with  any  state  in  the 
emancipation  of  its  slaves,  by  compensating  the  owners  of  the 
slaves  for  their  loss.  He  invited  the  congressmen  of  the  border 
states  to  a  conference,  and  urged  them  to  contribute  their  valu 
able  aid  toward  preserving  the  Union  by  the  acceptance  of 
this  plan  of  "  compensated  emancipation."  But  they  hung 
back,  doubting  the  power  or  the  will  of  the  government  to 
deal  fairly  with  them.  Lincoln  could  get  no  support,  either 
from  his  cabinet  or  from  Congress,  in  spite  of  repeated  efforts, 


The  Civil  War  4/1 

and  he  sorrowfully  gave  up  the  realization  of  this  wise  and 
humane  policy  of  emancipation  (July,   I862).1 

Meanwhile  Congress  had  passed  an  act  in  April  abolishing  671.  slavery 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  with  a  compensation  to  the  the  terri_ 


owner  of  $300  for  each  slave  liberated;  and  two  months  later 
fulfilled  the  pledges  of  the  platform  on  which  Lincoln  was 
elected,  by  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the  territories  of  the  United 
States  and  in  all  territory  which  might  be  acquired  by  the  United 
States  in  the  future  (July  19,  1862). 

After  the  failure  of  the  border  states  to  accept  the  compen-  672.  Pressure 
sated-emancipation  scheme,  the  President  grew  more  favorable  to  Lincoln  to 
the  idea  of  military  emancipation.   The  pressure  brought  to  bear 
on  him  to  liberate  the  slaves  was  enormous.    The  radical  anti- 
slavery  men  of  the  North  wanted  to  know  how  long  the  evil  which 
had  brought  on  the  war  was  to  be  tolerated,2  and  our  ministers 
abroad  were  writing  home  that  the  sympathy  of  Europe  could  not 
be  expected  by  the  North  until  it  was  clear  that  the  war  was  for  the 
extermination  of  slavery  and  not  for  the  subjugation  of  the  South. 

At  the  cabinet  meeting  of  July  21,  1862,  therefore,  President 
Lincoln  read  a  paper  announcing  his  intention  of  declaring  free, 
on  the  first  of  the  following  January,  the  slaves  of  all  people 
then  in  rebellion  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States. 
The  members  of  the  cabinet  approved  the  paper,  but  Seward 

1  It  is  doubtful  in  the  extreme  if  the  adoption  of  Lincoln's  plan  by  the  border 
states  would  have  had  any  effect  on  the  seceding  states  or  shortened  the  war 
a  day.   The  failure  of  the  plan,  however,  was  about  the  keenest  political  disap 
pointment  in  Lincoln's  life.   The  slaves  in  the  four  border  states  of  Delaware, 
Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri  numbered  430,000,  and  at  $400  apiece  their 
emancipation  would  have  cost  the  government  about  $175,000,000,  or  the  cost  of 
87  days  of  war.  .  Lincoln  had  no  doubt  that  the  emancipation  of  these  slaves  would 
shorten  the  war  by  more  than  87  days,  but  one  sees  no  ground  for  such  confidence. 

2  Horace  Greeley,  editor  of  the  influential  New  York  Tribune,  wrote  an  editorial 
in  August,  1862,  which  he  called  the  "  Prayer  of  Twenty  Millions,"  taking  the  Presi 
dent  severely  to  task  for  his  "  mistaken  deference  to  rebel  slavery,"  and  calling  on 
him  to  execute  the  Confiscation  Acts  immediately.    Lincoln  replied  in  a  famous 
letter,  in  which  he  declared  that  he  was  acting  as  seemed  best  to  him  for  the  pres 
ervation  of  the  Union.   That  was  his  "  paramount  object."    "  If  I  could  save  the 
Union  without  freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it  ;  if  I  could  save  the  Union  by 
freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it.  ...  Whatever  I  do  about  slavery  and  the 
colored  race,  I  do  because  I  believe  it  helps  save  the  Union." 


472  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

suggested  that  the  moment  was  inopportune  for  its  publication. 
McClellan  had  just  been  removed  from  his  command  after  the 
futile  Peninsular  campaign,  and  the  new  generals,  Halleck  and 
Pope,  were  as  yet  untried  in  the  East.  Would  it  not  be  better  to 
wait  for  a  Union  victory  before  publishing  the  proclamation  ? 
Lincoln  agreed  with  Seward,  and  put  the  paper  in  his  desk. 


' 


Facsimile  of  the  Closing  Words  of  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation 

673.  The  The  dark  days  of  the  second  Bull  Run  and  Pope's  retreat 

ProcSunationJ  followed  (August,  1862);  but  when  McClellan  repulsed  Lee's 

Jg°3uary  l>       invasion  of  Maryland  at  Antietam  Creek  (September  16),  Lin 

coln  thought  that  the  favorable  moment  had  come.     Accord 

ingly  he  published  the  warning  announcement,  September  22, 

1862,  and  on  New  Year's  Day,  1863,  issued  the  famous  Emanci 

pation  Proclamation,  designating  the  states  and  parts  of  states 


The  Civil  War 


473 


in  which  rebellion  against  the  authority  and  government  of  the 
United  States  then  existed,  and  declaring,  by  virtue  of  the  power 
vested  in  him  as  commander  in  chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of 
the  United  States,  that  "  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  such 
designated  states  and  parts  of  states  are,  and  henceforward 
shall  be,  free." 

This  immortal  proclamation  is  one  of  the  landmarks  of  uni 
versal  history.     It  announced  the  liberation  of  three  and  a  half 


By  Lincoln's  Proclamation  Jan.  1, 
By  Action  of  the  States  1863-1865 
Dy  Thirteenth  Amendment  1865 


Map  showing  how  the  Slaves  were  emancipated 

million  slaves.  It  changed  the  status  of  nearly  one  eighth  of 
the  inhabitants  of  this  country,  from  that  of  chattels  bought  and 
sold  like  live  stock  in  the  auction  market  to  that  of  men  and 
women  endowed  with  the  right  to  labor,  like  other  human 
beings,  for  employers  whom  they  chose  and  under  terms  to 
which  they  agreed. 

But  splendid  as  this  proclamation  was,  it  was  nevertheless  674.  The 
only  a  war  measure.     While  the  President  as  commander  in 
chief  of  the  army  could  confiscate  the  "  property  "  of  men  in  measure 
rebellion  against  the  government,  by  declaring  their  slaves  free, 


474  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

neither  he  nor  Congress  could  permanently  alter  the  constitu 
tions  of  the  states.  Slavery  was  legally  established  in  the  states 
south  of  Mason  an4  Dixon's  line,  and  the  only  way  it  could  be 
permanently  abolished  in  those  states  was  either  by  the  action 
of  the  states  themselves  or  by  an  amendment  to  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States.  Lincoln's  proclamation  did  not  free 
a  single  slave  in  the  loyal  slaveholding  states  of  Kentucky,  Mis 
souri,  Maryland,  and  Delaware.  And  when  the  seceded  states 
should  cease  to  be  "  in  rebellion  against  the  authority  of  the 
United  States,"  there  was  nothing  to  hinder  their  legislatures 
from  passing  laws  to  reenslave  the  negroes.  In  order  to  have 
emancipation  permanent,  then,  the  Constitution  must  be  amended 
so  as  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the  whole  of  the  United  States. 
675.  The  Such  an  amendment  was  passed  through  Congress  on  January 

Amendment    3 T  > I  ^  ^  5 '  ^Y  ^e  necessary  two-thirds  vote,  amid  great  enthusiasm, 
l86s  and  the  House  adjourned  "  in  honor  of  the  immortal  and  sub 

lime  event."  The  amendment  provides  that  "  neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime, 
whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  within 
the  United  States  or  any  place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction."  * 
The  amendment  was  duly  ratified  by  three  fourths  of  the  states, 
including  eight  of  the  states  of  the  late  Confederacy,  and  on 
December  18,  1865,  was  proclaimed  part  of  the  Constitution  of  i 
the  United  States,  the  supreme  law  of  the  land. 

Whether  the  curse  of  slavery  could  have  been  removed  with 
out  war  is  a  question  no  one  can  answer.  Certain  it  is  that  be 
fore  the  war,  in  spite  of  political  compromises  of  forty  years,  in 
spite  of  the  labors  of  the  greatest  statesmen  and  orators  to 
preserve  concord  between  the  North  and  the  South,  in  spite  of: 
the  mobs  that  assaulted  the  abolitionists  in  Boston  and  the  voices 
that  rebuked  the  "  fire  eaters "  in  Charleston,  the  argument! 

1  Of  course  the  exception  in  the  middle  of  the  amendment  refers  to  the  labor  < 
of  convicts  in  prisons  or  workhouses.  The  amendment  has  been  violated  since, 
our  acquisition  of  the  Philippine  Islands  in  1898,  for  slavery  exists  on  some  of 
those  islands,  though  they  are  "  under  the  jurisdiction  "  of  the  United  States. 
But  it  is  a  condition  which  we  inherited  with  the  islands,  and  which  we  hope  to 
remedy  as  soon  as  possible. 


The  Civil  War  475 

•  over  slavery  grew  more  and  more  bitter  and  the  hold  of  slavery 
on  the  country  firmer  and  firmer  each  year.  When  we  consider 
that  the  thirteenth  amendment  to  our  Constitution  might  have 
been  the  prohibition  of  Congress  ever  to  disturb  slavery  in  the 
Southern  states,1  instead  of  the  eternal  banishment  of  slavery 
from  our  land,  we  may  say  that  the  awful  sacrifices  of  the  Civil 
War  were  not  made  in  vain.2 

REFERENCES 

The  Opposing  Forces :  JAMES  SCHOULER,  History  of  the  United 
States,  Vol.  VI,  chap,  i,  section  3  ;  chap,  ii,  sections  I,  2  ;  J.  C.  ROPES, 
Story  of  the  Civil  War,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  vii,  viii ;  A.  B.  HART,  American 
History  told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  75-83;).  W.  DRAPER, 
The  Civ-il  War  in  America,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xxxvii-xxxix ;  JEFFERSON 
DAV.IS,  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederacy,  Vol.  I,  part  iv,  chaps,  i-iv ; 
J.  K.  HOSMER,  The  Appeal  to  Arms  (American  Nation  Series),  chaps, 
i-iii ;  T.  A.  DODGE,  A  Bird's-eye  View  of  the  Civil  War,  chaps,  ii,  xxv. 

From  Bull  Run  to  Gettysburg :  HOSMER,  chaps,  iv-xiii,  xv-xix ; 
DODGE,  chaps,  iv-xxvi;  ROPES,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  ix-xii ;  Vol.  II,  chaps. 
i-vii ;  DRAPER,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xlix-lix ;  SCHOULER,  Vol.  VI,  chap,  i, 
sections  4-14;  chap,  ii,  sections  1-4;  U.  S.  GRANT,  Personal  Memoirs, 
Vol.  I,  chaps,  xx-xxxix;  J.  W.  BURGESS,  The  Civil  War  and  the  Con- 
stitiition,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  viii-xi ;  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xii-xxv ;  J.  F.  RHODES, 
History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850,  Vol.  Ill,  chap, 
xvi ;  Vol.  IV,  chaps,  xvii-xx ;  NlCOLAY  and  HAY,  Abraham  Lincoln,  a 
History,  Vols.  III-VII. 

The  Triumph  of  the  North :  NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Vols.  VIII-X ;  J.  K. 
HOSMER,  The  Outcome  of  the  Civil  War  (Am.  Nation),  chaps,  i-xiii, 
xvii ;  SCHOULER,  Vol.  VI,  chaps,  ii,  iii ;  RHODES,  Vol.  IV,  chaps,  xxi- 
xxiii;  Vol.  V,  chaps,  xxiv,  xxv;  BURGESS,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xxvi-xxxii; 
DODGE,  chaps,  xxvii-xl ;  DRAPER,  Vol.  Ill ;  GRANT,  Vol.  II. 

1  The  student  will  remember  that  Congress,  in  the  last  hope  of  preventing  the 
war,  actually  passed  an  amendment,  February  28,  1861,  to  the  effect  that  Con 
gress  should  never  have  "  the  power  to  abolish  or  interfere  within  any  state  with 
the  domestic  institutions  thereof,  including  that  of  persons  held  to  labor  or  service 
by  the  laws  of  said  state"  (see  p.  418,  note).    Before  the  amendment  had  a  fair 
chance  to  secure  ratification  by  the  states  the  war  had  broken  out. 

2  Besides  the  enormous  debt  of  some  $2,800,000,000  entailed  on  the  country, 
and  the  utter  ruin  of  the  wealth  of  the  South,  the  war  cost  over  a  million  lives, 
not  counting  the  maimed  and  diseased  who  lived  on  for  a  few  years  or  more  of 
suffering.   There  died  in  hospitals  or  prisons  or  on  the  field  of  battle  an  average 
of  700  men  a  day  for  four  full  years. 


476  The  Crisis  of  Distmion 

Emancipation :  NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Vol.  IV,  chaps,  xxii,  xxiv ;  Vol. 
VI,  chaps,  v,  vi,  viii,  xix ;  Vol.  X,  chap,  iv ;  HOSMER,  The  Appeal  to  Arms, 
chap,  xiv;  DAVIS,  Vol.  II,  part  iv,  chaps,  xxv,  xxvi ;  A.  B.  HART,  Salmon 
P.  Chase,  chap,  x;  Contemporaries,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  124-131;  BURGESS, 
Vol.  II,  chaps,  xvi,  xviii,  xx;  DRAPER,  Vol.  II,  chap.  Ixiv ;  J.  G.  BLAINE, 
Twenty  Years  of  Congress,  Vol.  I,  chap,  xx ;  HORACE  GREELEY,  The 
American  Conflict,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xi,  xii. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  The  Blockade  of  the  Southern  Coast:  NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Vol.  V, 
pp.  1-20 ;  RHODES,  Vol.  V,  pp.  396-420 ;  HART,  Contemporaries,  Vol.  IV, 
No.  116;  GEORGE  GARY  EGGLESTON,  History  of  the  Confederate  War, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  261-267  ;  E.  S.  MACLAY,  History  of  the  United  States  Navy, 
Vol.  II,  pp.  225-281  ;  J.  R.  SOLEY,  The  Blockade  and  the  Cruisers ;  H.  L. 
WAIT,  The  Blockade  of  the  Confederacy  ( Century  Magazine,  Vol.  XXXIV, 
pp.  914-928). 

2.  Great  Britain's  Attitude  during  the  War:  RHODES,  Vol.  IV,  pp. 
76-95>  337-3951  T.    K.   LOTHROP,    William   H.   Seward,  pp.   271-287, 
320-336;  C.  F.  ADAMS,   Charles  Francis  Adams,  pp.   147-344;  HART, 
Contemporaries,  Vol.  IV,  No.  98 ;  HOSMER,   The  Appeal  to  Arms,  pp. 
306-319;  NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  49-68;  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  254- 
266;  MONTAGUE  BERNARD,  The  Neutrality  of  Great  Britain. 

3.  Vicksburg  during  the  Siege  :  HART,  Vol.  IV,  No.  119 ;  SCHOULER, 
Vol.  VI,  pp.  375-398;  NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  282-310; 
RHODES,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  312-318;  My  Cave  Life  in  Vicksburg,  by  a  Lady 
(New  York,  1864). 

4.  The  Draft  Riots  in  New  York :  NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Vol.  VII,  pp. 
1-27  ;  RHODES,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  320-332 ;  GREELEY,  Vol.  II,  pp.  500-508 ; 
HART,  Vol.  IV,  No.  121  ;  Harper's  Magazine,  Vol.  XXVII,  pp.  559-560 ; 
J.  B.  FRY,  New  York  and  the  Conscription  of  1863. 

5.  The  Economic  and  Social  Condition  of  the  South  during  the  War: 
HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  141-144;   Cambridge  Modern  History,  Vol.  VII, 
pp.  603-621  ;  DRAPER,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  480-496;  SCHOULER,  Vol.  VI,  pp. 
568-575;  HOSMER,   The  Outcome  of  the   War,  pp.  269-289;  WOODROW 
WILSON,  History  of  the  American  People,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  290-312  ;  DAVIS, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  471-504;  DAVID  DODGE,    The   Cave  Dwellers  of  the  Con 
federacy  (Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol.  LVIII,  pp.  514-521). 

6.  Prisons,   North   and   South:    SCHOULER,  Vol.   VI,  pp.  407-414; 
NICOLAY  and  HAY,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  444-472 ;  RHODES,  Vol.  V,  pp.  483- 
515;  DRAPER,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  498-520;  HOSMER,  The  Outcome  of  the  War, 
pp.  240-248  ;  A.  B.  ISHAM,  Prisoners  of  War  and  Military  Prisons  ;  J.  V. 
HADLEY,  Seven  Months  a  Prisoner. 


CHAPTER   XVII 
THE  ERA  OF  RECONSTRUCTION 

How  THE  NORTH  USED  ITS  VICTORY 

A  few  hours  after  Lincoln's  death,  Andrew  Johnson  of  Ten-  676.  Andrew 
nessee  took  the  oath  of  office  as  President  of  the  United  States  l^t^tii' 
(April  15,  1865).  Mr.  Johnson  had  been  given  the  second  xs»  l865 
place  on  the  Republican  ticket  in  1864  not  by  reason  of  any 
fitness  to  occupy  high  office,  but  partly  to  reward  him  for  his 
fidelity  to  the  Union  cause  in  the  seceding  state  of  Tennessee 
(p.  446,  note  i),  and  partly  to  save  the  Republican  party  from 
the  reproach  of  being  called  "  sectional "  in  again  choosing  both 
its  candidates  from  Northern  states,  as  it  had  done  in  1856  and 
1860.  But  the  selection  of  Johnson  was  most  unfortunate.  He 
was  coarse,  violent,  egotistical,  obstinate,  and  vindictive.  Of 
Lincoln's  splendid  array  of  statesmanlike  virtues  he  possessed 
only  two,  honesty  and  patriotism.  Tact,  wisdom,  magnanimity, 
deference  to  the  opinion  of  others,  patience,  kindness,  humor  — 
all  these  qualities  he  lacked ;  and  he  lacked  them  at  a  crisis  in 
our  history  when  they  were  sorely  needed. 

Armed  resistance  in  the  South  was  at  an  end.    But  the  great  677.  The 
question  remained  of  how  the  North  should  use  its  victory,  reconstruc- 
Except  for  a  momentary  wave  of  desire   to  avenge  Lincoln's  tion 
murder  by  the  execution  of  prominent  "  rebels,"  there  was  no 
thought  of  inflicting  on  the  Southern  leaders  the  extreme  punish 
ment  of  traitors ; 1  but  there  was  the  difficult  problem  of  restor 
ing  the  states  of  the  secession  to  their  proper  place  in  the  Union. 

1  The  single  exception  to  this  policy  of  mercy  was  the  treatment  of  Jefferson 
Davis.  The  Confederate  president  was  brought  from  his  prison  at  Fortress  Monroe 
to  the  federal  court  at  Richmond  to  answer  the  charge  of  treason.  But  he  was 
released  on  bail,  and  the  case  was  never  pressed. 

477 


478  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

ft }  What  was  their  condition  ?  Were  they  still  states  of  the  Union, 
in  spite  of  their  four  years'  struggle  to  break  away  from  it  ?  Or 
,-•?  had  they  lost  the  rights  of  states,  and  become  territories  of  the 
United  States,  subject  to  such  governments  as  might  be  pro 
vided  for  them  by  the  authorities  at  Washington  ?  Or  was  the 
South  merely  a  "  conquered  province,"  which  had  forfeited  by 
its  rebellion  even  the  right  of  protection  by  the  national  govern 
ment,  and  which  might  be  made  to  submit  to  such  terms  as 
the  conquering  North  saw  fit  to  impose  ? 

678.  Lin-  Long  before  the  close  of  the  war  President  Lincoln  had 

cent  plan1*61  answered  these  questions  according  to.  the  theory  he  had  held 
consistently  from  the  day  of  the  assault  on  Fort  Sumter, 
namely,  that  not  the  states  themselves,  but  combinations  of 
individuals  in  the  states,  too  powerful  to  be  dealt  with  by  the 
ordinary  process  of  the  courts,  had  resisted  the  authority  of  the 
United  States.  He  had  therefore  welcomed  and  nursed  every 
manifestation  of  loyalty  in  the  Southern  states.  He  had  recog 
nized  the  representatives  of  the  small  Unionist  population  of 
Virginia,  assembled  at  Alexandria  within  the  Federal  lines,  as 
the  true  government  of  the  state.  He  had  immediately  estab 
lished  a  military  government  in  Tennessee  on  the  success  of  the 
Union  arms  there  in  the  spring  of  1862.  He  had  declared  by 
a  proclamation  in  December,  1863,  that  as  soon  as  10  per  cent 
of  the  voters  of  1860  in  any  of  the  seceded  states  should  form 
a  loyal  government  and  accept  the  legislation  of  Congress  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  he  would  recognize  that  government  as 
legal.  And  such  governments  had  actually  been  set  up  in 
Tennessee,  Arkansas,  and  Louisiana.  True,  Lincoln  had  not 
come  to  an  agreement  with  Congress  as  to  the  final  method  of 
restoring  the  Southern  states  to  their  place  in  the  Union.1  That 

1  Congress  did  not  receive  any  senators  or  representatives  from  these  "  Lin 
coln  governments,"  and  in  1864  passed  the  Wade-Davis  bill  prescribing  condi 
tions  on  which  the  seceding  states  should  be  readmitted  to  the  Union.  Lincoln, 
unwilling  to  have  so  weighty  a  question  decided  hastily,  allowed  the  Congress 
of  1864  to  expire  without  giving  the  bill  his  signature.  Wade  and  Davis  pro 
tested  against  this  "  usurpation  of  authority  "  by  the  executive ;  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that,  if  Lincoln  had  been  spared  to  serve  his  second  term,  he  would  have 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction  479 

question  waited  till  the  close  of  the  war;  and  the  awful  pity 
is  that  when  it  came  Abraham  Lincoln  was  no  longer  alive.1 

During  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1865,  when  Congress  679.  The 
was  not  in  session,  President  Johnson  proceeded  to  apply  govern8- " 
Lincoln's  plan  to  the  states  of  the  South,  just  as  if  it  had  been  ments,"i865 
definitely  settled  that  Congress  was  to  have  no  part  in  their 
reconstruction.  He  appointed  military  governors  in  North  and 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and 
Texas.  He  ordered  conventions  to  be  held  in  those  states, 
which  repealed  the  ordinances  of  secession  and  framed  new 
constitutions.  State  officers  were  elected.  Legislatures  were 
chosen,  which  repudiated  the  debts  incurred  during  the  war 
(except  in  South  Carolina)  and  ratified  the  Thirteenth  Amend 
ment  abolishing  slavery  (except  in  Mississippi).  When  Congress 
met  in  December,  1865,  senators  and  representatives  from  the 
Southern  states,  which  but  a  few  months  before  had  been  in 
rebellion  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  were  wait 
ing  at  the  doors  of  the  Capitol  for  admission  to  their  seats.2 

But  Congress  had  good  reasons  for  not  permitting  these 
men  forthwith  to  participate  in  making  laws  for  the  Union, 
which  they  had  so  lately  fought  to  destroy.  In  the  first  place, 
the  President  had  arrogated  to  himself,  during  the  recess  of 
Congress,  the  sole  right  to  determine  on  what  terms  the  seceded 
states  should  be  restored  to  the  Union.  The  President  had 

had  to  use  all  his  tact  and  patience  in  finding  a  fair  ground  of  agreement 
between  the  President  and  Congress  in  the  reconstruction  of  the  Southern 
states. 

1  On  April  u,  three  days  before  his  assassination,   Lincoln  was  called  to 
the  balcony  of  the  White  House  to  make  a  speech  in  response  to  the  congratu 
lations  of  the  citizens  of  Washington  on  the  surrender  of  Lee's  army  (April  9). 
In  this  last  public  utterance  Lincoln  said,  "  I  am  considering  a  new  announce 
ment  to  the  people  of  the  South."  No  record  of  this  intended  announcement  was 
found  among  Lincoln's  papers,  but  we  may  be  sure  that  it  would  have  been  an 
appeal  to  the  defeated  states  of  the  secession  to  come  back  into  the  Union  on 
liberal  terms  and  without  rancor. 

2  The  Johnson  government  in  Texas  did  not  get  organized  until  1866,  and 
the  Florida  legislature  had  not  met  to  choose  the  senators  from  that  state.   But 
with'the  exception  of  Texas  and  Florida  all  the  states  of  the  secession  sent  up 
their  regular  quota  of  representatives  and  senators, 


480  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

the  power  of  pardon,  which  he  could  extend  to  individuals  as 
widely  as  he  pleased.  But  the  pardoning  power  did  not  give 
him  the  right  to  determine  the  political  condition  of  the  states 
which  had  made  war  against  the  Union. 

680.  Legis-  Furthermore,  the  conduct  of  the  Johnson  governments  in  the 
these1  govern-  autumn  of  1865  was  offensive  to  the  North.  Although  they 
accepted  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  they  passed  very  harsh 
laws  against  the  negroes,  which  in  some  cases  came  very  near 
reducing  them  to  the  condition  of  slavery  again.  For  example, 
"  vagrancy  "  laws  imposed  a  fine  on  negroes  who  were  wander 
ing  about  without  a  domicile,  and  allowed  the  man  who  paid 
the  fine  to  take  the  negro  and  compel  him  to  work  out  his  debt. 
"  Apprentice "  laws  assigned  young  negroes  to  "  guardians " 
(often  their  former  owners),  for  whom  they  should  work  with 
out  wages  in  return  for  their  board  and  clothing.  To  the 
Southerners  these  laws  seemed  to  be  only  the  necessary  pro 
tection  of  the  white  population  against  the  deeds  of  crime  and  vio 
lence  to  which  a  large,  wandering,  unemployed  body  of  negroes 
might  be  tempted.  Nearly  4,000,000  slaves  had  been  suddenly 
liberated.  Very  few  of  them  had  any  sense  of  responsibility  or 
any  capacity  or  capital  for  beginning  a  life  of  industrial  freedom. 
Their  emotional  nature  led  them  to  believe  that  miraculous  pros 
perity  was  to  be  bestowed  upon  them  without  their  effort ; 
that  the  plantations  of  their  late  masters  were  to  be  divided  up 
among  them  as  Christmas  and  New  Year's  gifts,  and  that 
"  every  nigger  was  to  have  forty  acres  and  a  mule."  They 
were  unfortunately  encouraged  in  these  ideas  by  many  low- 
minded  adventurers  and  rascally,  broken-down  politicians,  who 
came  from  the  North  and  posed  as  the  guides  and  protectors 
of  the  colored  race,1  poisoning  the  minds  of  the  negroes  against 

1  These  men  were  called  '<  carpetbaggers,"  because  they  were  popularly  said 
to  have  brought  all  their  property  with  them  in  the  cheap  kind  of  valise  which 
in  those  days  was  made  of  carpet  material ;  and  the  Southerners  who  acted  with 
them  in  their  attempt  to  raise  the  negro  above  his  former  master  in  society  and 
politics  were  called  "  scalawags."  The  carpetbaggers  and  scalawags  were  of 
course  working  for  their  own  profit  and  political  advancement.  They  must  not 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction  481 

the  only  people  who  could  really  help  them  begin  their  new  life 
of  freedom  well,  —  their  old  masters. 

The  people  of  the  North,  who  had  little  or  no  realization  of  681. Northern 
the  tremendous  social  problem  which  the  liberation  of  4,000,-  ?4\ack  ° 
ooo  negro  slaves  brought  upon  the  South,  regarded  the  "  black  codes" 
codes  "  of  the  Johnson  governments  of  1865,  which  forbade  the 
negroes  such  freedom  of  speech,  employment,  assembly,  and 
migration  as  they  themselves  had,  as  a  proof  of  the  defiant  pur 
pose  of  the  South  to  thrust  the  negro  back  into  his  old  position 
of  slavery.    Therefore  the  North  determined  that  the  Southern 
states  should  not  be  restored  to  their  place  in  the  Union  until 
they  gave  better  proof  of  an  honest  purpose  to  carry  out  the 
Thirteenth  Amendment.    The  war  for  the  abolition  of  the  curse 
which  had  divided  the  Union  had  been  too  costly  in  men  and 
money  to  allow  its  results  to  be  jeopardized  by  the  legisla 
tion  of  the  Southern  states. 

A  further  offense  in  the  eyes  of  the  North  was  the  sort  of  682.  The   (S 
men  whom  the  Southern  states  sent  up  to  Washington  in  the  ^leaders S 
winter  of  1865  to  take  their  places  in  Congress.    They  were 
mostly  prominent  secessionists.    Some  had  served  as  members  1865 
of  the  Confederate  Congress  at  Richmond ;  some  as  brigadier 
generals  in  the  Confederate  army.    Alexander  H.  Stephens,  vice 
president  of  the  Confederacy,  was  sent  by  the  legislature  of 
Georgia  to  serve  in  the  United  States  Senate.    To  the  Southern 
ers  it  seemed  perfectly  natural  to  send   their  best  talent  to 
Congress.    They  would  have  searched  in  vain  to  find  statesmen 
who  had  not  been  active  in  the  Confederate  cause.    But  to  the 
North  the  appearance  of  these  men  in  Washington  seemed  a 
piece  of  defiance  and  bravado  on  the  part  of  the  South  ;  a  boast 

be  confused  with  the  many  good  men  and  women  who  went  South  to  work  solely 
for  the  education,  protection,  and  uplift  of  the  negro.  Before  the  close  of  the 
war  Congress  had  established  a  Freedman's  Bureau  in  the  War  Department 
(February  3,  1865),  whose  duty  it  was  to  look  after  the  interests  of  the  emanci 
pated  blacks,  securing  them  labor  contracts,  settling  their  disputes,  aiding  them 
to  build  cottages,  etc.  The  carpetbaggers  tempted  the  negroes  away  from 
industrial  pursuits  into  politics. 


482 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


683.  They 
are  refused 
admission 


684.  Congress 
takes  the 
work  of  re 
construction 
into  its  own 
hands,  Jan 
uary,  1866 


that  they  had  nothing  to  repent  of,  and  that  they  had  forfeited 
no  privilege  of  leadership.  It  was  rather  too  severe  a  strain 
on  human* charity  to  welcome  Alexander  H.  Stepnens  to  a  seat 
beside  Charles  Sumner  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.1 

Then,  finally,  there  was  a  political  reason  why  the  Republi 
can  Congress  which  assembled  in  December,  1865,  should  not 
admit  the  men  sent  to  it  by  the  Johnson  governments  in  the 
South.  These  men  were  almost  all  Democrats,  and  as  hostile 
to  the  "  Black  Republican  "  party  as  they  had  been  in  1856  and 
1860.  Combined  with  the  Democrats  and  "  copperheads  "  of 
the  North,  who  had  opposed  the  war,  they  might  prove  numer 
ous  enough  to  oust  the  Republicans  from  power.  The  party 
which  had  saved  the  country  must  rule  it,  said  the  Republican 
orators. 

Moved  by  these  reasons,  Congress,  instead  of  admitting  the 
Southern  members,  appointed  a  committee  of  fifteen  to  investi 
gate  the  condition  of  the  late  seceded  states  and  recommend  on 
what  terms  they  should  be  restored  to  their  full  privileges  in  the 
Union.  Naturally,  Johnson  was  offended  that  Congress  should 
ignore  or  undo  his  work ;  and  he  immediately  assumed  a  tone 
of  hostility  to  the  leaders  of  Congress.  He  had  the  coarseness, 
when  making  a  speech  from  the  balcony  of  the  White  House 
on  Washington's  birthday,  1866,  to  attack  Sumner,  Phillips,  and 
Stevens2  by  name,  accusing  them  of  seeking  to  destroy  the 
rights  of  the  Southern  states  and  to  rob  the  President  of  his 
legal  powers  under  the  Constitution,  and  even  to  encourage 
his  assassination.  When  Congress,  in  the  early  months  of  1866, 

1  Of  course  there  is  no  instance  in  the  history  of  the  world  of  a  conquered 
people  being   allowed  immediately  to  participate,   on  equal  terms  with  their 
conquerors,  in  making  laws.    A  committee  of  Congress  appointed  to  consider  the 
condition  of  the  states  "  lately  in  rebellion  "  reported  (June,  1866)  that  it  would 
be  "  folly  and  madness  "  to  admit  the  representatives  of  these  states  forthwith  to 
Congress. 

2  Thaddeus  Stevens  of  Pennsylvania  (not  to  be  confused  with  Stephens  of 
Georgia) ,  who  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  in  Congress, 
a  bitter  enemy  of  the  South,  and  leader  of  the  "  radical  "  Republicans,  who  were 
determined  to  punish  the  "  rebels "   severely.   Stevens  ruled  Congress  as  no 
other  politician  in  our  history  had  done. 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction  483 

passed  bills l  to  protect  the  negroes  against  the  hostile  legisla 
tion  of  the  Southern  states,  Johnson  vetoed  the  bills.  But  Con 
gress  was  strong  enough  to  pass  them  over  his  veto.  The 
battle  was  then  fairly  joined  between  the  President  and  Con 
gress,  and  it  boded  ill  for  the  prospects  of  peace  and  order  in 
the  South. 

On  April  30,  1866,  the  committee  of  fifteen  reported.  It  685.  The 
recommended  a  new  amendment  to  the  Constitution  (the  four-  Amendment, 
teenth)  which  should  guarantee  the  civil  rights 2  of  the  negro 
citizen  of  the  South,  reduce  the  representation  in  Congress  of 
any  state  which  refused  to  let  the  negro  vote,  and  disqualify  the 
leaders  of  the  Confederacy  from  holding  federal  or  state  office.3 
This  last  provision,  which  deprived  the  Southern  leaders  of  their 
political  rights,  was  harsh  and  unkind,  assuming  as  it  did  that 
these  men  were  not  reconciled  to  the  Union.  But  the  rest  of 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment  was  a  fair  basis  for  the  reconstruc- 
tjon  of  the  Southern  states.  Congress  passed  the  amendment 
June  13,  1866,  and  Secretary  Seward  sent  it  to  the  states  for 
ratification.  While  Congress  did  not  explicitly  promise  that  it 
would  admit  the  representatives  and  senators  of  the  states 
which  ratified  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  it  doubtless  would 
have  done  so.  For  when  Tennessee  ratified  in  July,  1866,  that 
state  was  promptly  restored  to  its  full  privileges  in  the  Union. 
The  other  states  of  the  secession  might  well  have  followed  the 
lead  of  Tennessee ;  but  every  one  of  them,  indignant  at  the 
disqualifying  clause,  overwhelmingly  rejected  the  amendment. 
It  thus  failed  to  secure  the  votes  of  three  fourths  of  the  states 
of  the  Union,  necessary  for  its  ratification. 

1  To  wit,  the  Freedman's  Bureau  Bill,  continuing  and  enlarging  the  power  of 
that  bureau  of  the  War  Department  (p.  480,  note),  and  the  Civil  Rights  Bill,  pro 
tecting  the  negro  in  his  life,  property,  and  freedom  of  movement  and  occupation. 

2  Civil  rights  (see  note  i)  are  distinguished  from  political  rights.   The  former 
are  the  rights  that  every  citizen  (ch'is)  has  ;  the  latter  are  the  privileges  of  voting 
and  holding  office.  Women  and  children,  for  example,  have  full  civil  rights,  i.e.  the 
protection  of  the  government ;  but  (with  few  exceptions)  they  have  no  political 
rights,  i.e.  of  taking  part  in  the  government. 

3  The  Fourteenth  Amendment  must  be  carefully  studied  and  mastered.    It  is 
printed  in  full  in  Appendix  II.   The  disqualifying  clause  is  Section  3. 


484 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


686.  The 


election  of 
1866 


687.  The 
Reconstruc 
tion  Act, 
March  2, 
1867 


Congress,  angered  by  this  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  South, 
decided  to  take  the  reconstruction  of  the  states  of  the  secession 
entirely  into  its  own  hands.  The  elections  of  1866,  which  had 
taken  place  while  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  was  before  the 
people,  had  resulted  in  an  overwhelming  victory  for  the  con 
gressional  party  of  Stevens  and  Sumner  over  the  President's 
supporters.  Johnson  himself  had  contributed  to  the  defeat  of 
his  policies  by  encouraging  the  Southern  states  to  reject  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment,  and  by  making  a  series  of  outrageous 
speeches  in  the  West  during  the  autumn  of  1866,  vilifying 
the  congressional  leaders  and  exalting  his  own  patriotism  and 
sagacity. 

Early  in  1867,  then,  Congress,  under  the  leadership  of  Ste 
vens  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  House  and  of  Sumner  and  Wilson 
of  Massachusetts  in  the  Senate,  devised  a  thoroughgoing  plan 
for  reconstructing  the  South.  By  the  Reconstruction  Act  of 
March  2,  1867,  the  whole  area  occupied  by  the  ten  states  which 
had  rejected  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  was  divided  up  into 
five  military  districts,  and  a  major  general  of  the  Union  army 
was  put  in  command  of  each  district.  The  Johnson  governments 
of  1865  were  swept  away,  and  in  their  place  new  governments 
were  established  under  the  supervision  of  the  major  generals  and 
their  detachments  of  United  States  troops.1  The  Reconstruc 
tion  Act  provided  that  negroes  should  be  allowed  to  participate 
both  in  framing  the  new  constitutions  and  in  running  the  new 
governments,  while  at  the  same  time  their  former  masters  were 
in  large  numbers  disqualified  by  the  third  section  of  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment.  The  act  further  provided  that,  when 
the  new  state  governments  should  have  ratified  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment,  and  that  amendment  should  have  become  part  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  these  states  should  be 
restored  to  their  place  in  the  Union. 

1  In  October,  1867,  there  were  19,320  United  States  soldiers  distributed  at  134 
posts  in  the  South.  At  Richmond  and  New  Orleans  there  were  over  1000 
troops;  at  other  posts  less  than  500.  They  had  charge  of  the  registering  of 
voters  and  supervised  the  polling. 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction 


485 


Thus  by  the   Reconstruction  Acts1  of  1867   Congress  de-  688.  Negro 
liberately  forced  negro  suffrage  on  the  South  at  the  point  of  forcedSon  the 
the  bayonet.     It  was  a  violent  measure  for  Congress  to  adopt,  South 
even  though  the  conduct  of  the  states  of  the  secession  in  reject 
ing  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  was   sorely  provoking.    The 
negroes  outnumbered  the  whites  in  the  states  of  South  Caro 
lina,  Alabama,  Florida,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi.    They  were, 
with  few  exceptions,  utterly  unfit  for  the  exercise  of  political 


West  Virginia  made  out  of 
the  40  loyal  counties  of  Virginia  ;  V" 
admitted  to  the  Union  as  a  state. 


tates  in  which  reconstruction 

was  begun  by  Lincoln 
Dates  represent  restoration  to  the  Union. 


The  Military  Districts  of  the  Reconstruction  Act  of  1867 

rights.  Even  the  colored  men  of  the  North,  far  in  advance  of 
their  Southern  brothers  who  labored  in  the  cotton  fields,  were 
allowed  the  suffrage  in  only  six  states,  where  they  counted  as 
the  tiniest  fraction  of  the  population.  Ohio,  in  the  very  year 
Congress  was  forcing  negro  suffrage  on  the  South  (1867), 
rejected  by  over  50,000  votes  the  proposition  to  give  the  ballot 
to  the  few  negroes  of  that  state.  Conceding  that  Congress  had 
the  right  to  impose  negro  suffrage  on  the  South  as  a  conqueror's 

1  Two  acts  supplementary  to  the  one  of  March  2  prescribed  the  method  for 
conducting  elections  in  the  South  (March  23),  and  made  the  military  authorities 
m  control  of  the  districts  of  the  South  responsible  to  the  general  of  the  army 
(Grant)  and  not  to  the  President  (July  19). 


486  TJie  Crisis  of  Disunion 

privilege,  it  was  nevertheless  a  most  unwise  thing  to  do.  To 
reverse  the  relative  position  of  the  races  in  the  South,  to  "  stand 
the  social  pyramid  on  its  apex,"  to  set  the  ignorant,  supersti 
tious,  gullible  slave  in  power  over  his  former  master,  was  no 
way  to  insure  either  the  protection  of  the  negro's  right  or  the 
stability  and  peace  of  the  Southern  governments.1 

689.  char-         The  governments  of  North  and  South  Carolina,   Georgia, 
Reconstruc-    Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  and  Texas, 

tion  govern-  formed  under  the  military  domination  of  the   Reconstruction 

ments,  1868- 

1874  Acts,  were   sorry  affairs.     The  negroes,  who  did  not  ask   for 

political  rights,  were  suddenly  thrust  into  positions  of  high 
political  office  which  they  had  no  idea  how  to  fill.  Prompted  by 
their  unscrupulous  carpetbagger  friends  and  scalawag  backers 
they  could  be  counted  on  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket,  and  to 
send  to  Congress  men  of  the  party  which  had  saved  the 
country.  That  was  enough  for  most  of  the  advocates  of  Re 
construction.  But  for  the  exhausted  Southern  states,  already 
amply  "  punished  "  by  the  desolation  of  war,  the  rule  of  these 
negro  governments  of  1868  was  an  indescribable  orgy  of  ex 
travagance,  fraud,  and  disgusting  incompetence,  —  a  travesty 
on  government.  Instead  of  wise,  conservative  legislatures, 
which  would  encourage  industry,  keep  down  expenditures,  and 
build  up  the  shattered  resources  of  the  South,  there  were 
ignorant  groups  of  men  in  the  state  capitals,  dominated  by 
unprincipled  politicians,  who  plunged  the  states  further  and 
further  into  debt  by  voting  themselves  enormous  salaries, 
and  by  spending  lavish  sums  of  money  on  railroads,  canals,  and 
public  buildings  and  works,  for  which  they  reaped  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  in  "  graft."  2 

1  Lincoln  had  suggested  to  the  military  governor  of  Louisiana  during  the  war 
that  the  most  capable  negroes  and  those  who  had  shown  their  devotion  to  the 
Union  by  fighting  in  the  Federal  armies  might  be  given  the  right  to  vote.    But  he 
had  no  idea  of  forcing  the  South  to  give  a  single  former  slave  political  rights. 
Johnson  also  had  earnestly  advised  the  Mississippi  convention  of  1865  to  give 
a  vote  to  negroes  who  possessed  $250  worth  of  property. 

2  The  economic  evils  and  social  humiliation  brought  on  the  South  by  the 
Reconstruction  governments  are  almost  beyond  description.  South  Carolina,  for 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction 


487 


^^'''"'"""'""•""J 

°AKS,  «TH  OK  MARCH,  itn. 


Such  governments  could  not  of  course  last,  unless  supported  690.  The  KU- 
by  Northern  bayonets  ;  and  the  Republican  carpetbag  politi 
cians  in  the  South  were  not  slow  to  call  upon  the  Republican 
administration  at  Washington  for  detachments  of  troops  when 
ever  their  supremacy  was  threatened.  Deprived  by  force  of  any 
legal  means  of  defense  against  this  iniquitous  kind  of  govern 
ment,  the  South  resorted  to  intimidation  and  persecution  of  the 
negro.  Secret  organizations,  called  the  Ku-Klux  Klans,  made 
up  mostly  of  young  men, 
took  advantage  of  the 
black  man's  supersti 
tious  nature  to  force  him 
back  into  the  humble 
social  position  which  he 
held  before  the  war. 
The  members  of  the  Ku- 
Klux  on  horseback,  with 
man  and  horse  robed 
in  ghostly  white  sheets, 
spread  terror  at  night  A  Ku-Klux  Warning 

through  the  negro  quarters,  and  posted  on  trees  and  fences 
horrible  warnings  to  the  carpetbaggers  and  scalawags  to  leave 
the  country  soon  if  they  wished  to  live. 

Inevitably  there  was  violence  done  in  this  reign  of  terror 
inaugurated  by  the  Ku-Klux  riders.  Negroes  were  beaten; 
scalawags  were  shot.  Of  course  these  deeds  of  violence  were 
greatly  exaggerated  by  the  carpetbag  officials,  who  reported 
them  to  Washington  and  asked  more  troops  for  their  protec 
tion.  It  came  to  actual  fighting  in  the  streets  of  New  Orleans, 

example,  had  a  legislature  in  which  88  of  the  155  members  were  negroes.  Ninety 
of  the  members  paid  no  taxes  ;  yet  this  legislature  spent  the  people's  money  by 
millions.  The  debt  of  the  state  was  $5,000,000  in  1868;  by  1872  it  had  been 
increased  to  $30,000,000  ;  in  one  year  $200,000  were  spent  in  furnishing  the 
state  capitol  with  costly  plate-glass  mirrors,  lounges,  desks,  armchairs,  and  other 
luxurious  appointments,  including  a  free  bar,  for  the  use  of  the  negro  and 
scalawag  legislators.  It  took  the  Southern  states  from  two  to  nine  years  to  get 
rid  of  these  governments. 


488  The  Crisis  of  Distmion 

and  the  trenches  outside  Vicksburg,  which  were  used  in  1863 
by  the  Union  sharpshooters,  were  the  scene,  ten  years  later,  of 
a  disgraceful  race  conflict  between  blacks  and  whites.  Thus 
long  after  the  war  was  over,  the  prostrate  South,  which  should 
have  been  well  on  the  way  to  industrial  and  commercial 
recovery,  under  the  leadership  of  its  own  best  genius,  still  pre 
sented  in  many  parts  a  spectacle  of  anarchy,  violence,  and  fraud, 
—  its  legislatures  and  offices  in  the  grasp  of  low  political  adven 
turers,  its  resources  squandered  or  stolen,  its  people  divided 
into  two  bitterly  hostile  races. 

691.  The  Why  did  the  Republican  Congress  of  1867  put  upon  the 
Reconstruc-  South  the  unbearable  burden  of  negro  rule  supported  by  the 
bayonet  ?  For  various  reasons.  Some  misguided  humanitarians, 
like  Sumner,  let  their  sympathy  for  the  oppressed  slave  con 
fuse  their  judgment  of  the  negro's  intellectual  capacity.1  Others, 
desiring  justice  above  all  things,  believed  that  the  only  way  to 
secure  the  negro  in  his  civil  rights  was  to  put  the  ballot  into 
his  hands.  The  partisan  politicians  welcomed  negro  suffrage  as 
a  means  of  assuring  Republican  majorities  in  the  Southern 
states.2  And  finally,  there  were  thousands  of  men  in  the  North 
who  wished  to  punish  the  South  for  the  defiant  attitude  of  the 
Johnson  governments  in  passing  the  "  black  codes,"  in  sending 
Confederate  brigadier  generals  up  to  Congress,  and  in  rejecting 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment.  The  conduct  of  these  state  govern 
ments  was  exasperating,  to  be  sure ;  but  Congress  might  have 
simply  kept  a  firm  military  hand  upon  them  and  waited  patiently 
for  them  to  come  to  their  better  senses  and  comply  with  the  terms 

1  General  Pope,  for  example,  who  was  in  command  of  the  third  military  dis 
trict  under  the  Reconstruction  Act  (comprising  Georgia,  Florida,  and  Alabama), 
wrote  to  General  Grant  in  July,  1867,  "  Five  years  will  have  transferred  the 
intellect  and  education,  so  far  as  the  masses  are  concerned,  to  the   colored 
people  of  this  district." 

2  In  the  presidential  election  of  1868,  for  example,  six  of  the  eight  states 
of  the  secession  which  took  part  in  the  election  voted  for  the  Republican  candi 
date,  General  Grant !   Such  a  result  could  have  been  accomplished  only  by  the 
enfranchisement  of  the  negroes  and  the  disfranchisement  of  the  whites.  Virginia, 
Mississippi,  and  Texas  did  not  comply  with  the  terms  of  Congress  and  gain 
restoration  to  their  places  in  the  Union  until  1870, 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction  489 

offered  in  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  for  their  restitution  to  their 
political  privileges.  By  hastening  to  reconstruct  them  on  the 
basis  of  negro  suffrage,  Congress  did  them  an  unpardonable 
injury.  The  South  would  never  have  cherished  resentment 
against  the  North  for  the  defeat  of  1861-1865  on  the  fair  field 
of  battle;  but  the  half  century  that  has  passed  since  the  fall 
of  Fort  Sumter  has  hardly  seen  the  extinction  of  the  bitter 
passion  roused  in  the  hearts  of  the  men,  women,  and  children 
of  the  South  against  their  fellow  countrymen  of  the  North,  for 
the  "  crime  of  Reconstruction." 


THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  NATION 

Although  the  restitution  of  the  Southern  states  to  their  place  692.  Effect  of 
in  the  Union  was  the  most  pressing  business  of  Congress  in  the  nation 
years  immediately  following  the  Civil  War,  it  was  by  no  means 
the  only  problem  in  the  reconstruction  of  the  nation.    War  is  a 
dreadful  thing,  especially  a  long  and  severe  civil  war.    It  not  only 
destroys  life  and  property,  desolating  the  region  over  which  it 
sweeps,  but  it  dislocates  the  government,  demoralizes  standards 
of  business,  disturbs  relations  with  foreign  countries,  and  piles  up 
an  enormous  debt  to  be  paid  from  the  taxation  of  the  people. 

Abraham  Lincoln  had  exercised  a  greater  power  than  any  693.  Disturb- 
other  President  in  our  history.  As  commander  in  chief  of  the  relations^ 
army  and  navy  he  had  had  the  appointment  of  officers  and 
the  general  direction  of  campaigns.  Through  his  Secretaries 
of  War  and  of  the  Treasury  he  had  superintended  the  raising  of 
men  and  money  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  As  measures 
of  safety  and  military  policy  he  had  suspended  the  clauses  of 
the  Constitution  (Amendments  V  and  VI)  which  guard  citizens 
of  the  United  States  against  arbitrary  arrest  and  punishment 
without  a  jury  trial,  and  had  emancipated  all  the  slaves  of  men 
in  rebellion  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States.  Con 
gress  had  generously  ratified  his  acts,  but  toward  the  close  of 
the  war  it  had  begun  to  reassert  its  power,  as  was  shown  by 


49°  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

its  resistance  to  Lincoln  in  the  Wade-Davis  bill  (p.  478,  note). 
Under  his  successor,  Johnson,  the  pendulum  swung  to  the  other 
extreme,  and  Congress  developed  quite  as  absolute  a  control 
over  the  government  as  the  President  had  exercised  during  the 
war.  Congress  not  only  overrode  Johnson's  vetoes  with  mock 
ing  haste,  but  it  passed  acts  depriving  him  of  his  constitutional 
powers  as  commander  of  the  army,  and  forbidding  him  to  dis 
miss  a  member  of  his  cabinet.  Finally,  it  impeached  him  on  the 
charge  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors.1 

694.  The  On  the  same  day  with  the  Reconstruction  Act  (March  2, 
OfficeJet,        J867),  Congress  passed  a  law  called  the  Tenure  of  Office  Act, 
March  2, 1867    whicn  forbade  the  President  to  remove  officers  of  the  govern 
ment  without  the  consent  of  the  Senate,  and  made  the  tenure 
of  cabinet  officers   extend  through  the  presidential  term  for 
which  they  were  appointed.    This  was  an  invasion  of  the  privi 
lege  which  the  President  had  always  enjoyed  of  removing  his 
cabinet  officers  at  will.    The  purpose  of  the  act  was  to  keep 
Stanton,  who  was  in  thorough  sympathy  with  the  radical  leaders 
of  Congress,  at  the  head  of  the  Department  of  War. 

695.  Theim-       President  Johnson  violated  the  Tenure  of  Office  Act,  which 
and  trial  of      he  believed  to  be  unconstitutional,  and  removed  Stanton.    The 
Johnson,  1868    House  impeached  him,  February  24,  1868,  and  the  Senate  as 
sembled  the  next  month  under  the  presidency  of  Chief  Justice 
Chase  to  try  the  case  (Constitution,  Article  I,  sect.  3,  clause  6). 
To  the  chagrin  of  the  radical  Republicans  the  Senate  failed  by 
one  vote  of  the  two- thirds  majority  necessary  to  convict  the 
President,  seven  Republicans  voting  with  the  Democrats  for 

1  The  President  of  the  United  States  is  elected  for  four  years,  and  the  only 
way  he  can  be  removed  is  by  impeachment  proceedings  (Constitution,  Article  II, 
sect.  4  ;  Article  I,  sect.  2,  clause  5  ;  Article  I,  sect.  3,  clause  6).  In  many  European 
countries  the  executive  power  is  virtually  in  the  hands  of  a  committee  of  the 
legislature,  or  a  "  ministry,"  which  can  be  overthrown  at  any  time  by  an  adverse 
vote  of  the  legislature.  This  is  called  "  responsible  government,"  and  in  coun 
tries  where  it  exists  (England,  France,  Italy,  Spain,  for  example),  a  prolonged 
quarrel  between  the  executive  and  the  legislative  branches  of  government,  like 
that  between  Jackson  and  Congress  (p.  286)  or  between  Johnson  and  Congress 
(p.  482),  is  impossible. 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction  49 1 

his  acquittal  (May  16,  I868).1  Johnson  finished  out  his  term, 
openly  despised  and  flouted  by  the  Republican  leaders,  and  was 
succeeded  on  March  4,  1869,  by  General  U.  S.  Grant. 

As  a  soldier  Grant  had  been  superb ;  as  a  statesman  he  was  696.  Presi- 
pitiable.  He  knew  nothing  about  the  administration  of  a 
political  office.  He  had  simply  been  rewarded  for  his  services 
in  the  war  by  the  presidency  of  the  United  States,  as  a  hero 
might  be  rewarded  by  a  gold  medal  or  a  gift  of  money.  He 
was  so  simple,  direct,  and  innocent  himself  that  he  failed  to 
understand  the  duplicity  and  fraud  that  were  practiced  under 
his  very  nose.  Like  all  untrained  men  in  public  positions,  he 
made  his  personal  likes  and  dislikes  the  test  of  his  political 
judgments,2  and  it  was  only  necessary  to  win  his  friendship  to 
have  his  official  support  through  thick  and  thin.  Unfortunately 
his  early  struggle  with  poverty  and  his  own  failure  in  business 
had  led  him  to  set  too  high  a  valuation  on  mere  pecuniary 
success,  making  him  unduly  susceptible  to  the  influence  of  men 
who  had  made  millions.8  He  was  easily  managed  by  the  astute 
Republican  politicians  in  Congress,  who  could,  by  their  plausible 
arguments,  make  the  worse  cause  appear  to  him  to  be  the  better.4 

1  The  condemnation  of  President  Johnson  would  have  been  a  gross  injustice. 
The  Tenure  of  Office  Act  was  passed  only  to  set  a  trap  for  him.    His  veto  of 
acts  of  Congress  in  1866-1867  had  been  entirely  within  his  rights  by  the  Con 
stitution,  and  his  abuse  of  the  congressional  leaders  in  public  speeches,  while  a 
personal  insult,  could  not  be  called  a  political  crime.    In  a  desperate  attempt, 
therefore,  to  find  grounds   ("  high  crimes  or  misdemeanors ")   on  which  they 
could  impeach  the  President,  the  radical  congressmen  passed  a  most  unfair  law 
which  they  were  pretty  sure  Johnson  would  violate. 

2  Like  our  other  military  President,  Andrew  Jackson.    But  Jackson  had  far 
more  administrative  ability  and  political  wisdom  than  Grant. 

3  For  example,  Grant  selected  two  men  for  places  in  his  first  cabinet  whose 
only  possible  recommendation  was  their  wealth.    He  himself  unwisely  accepted 
presents  and  social  attentions  from  men  whose  money  was  made  dishonestly 
and,  sometimes,  even  at  the  expense  of  the  government.    His  unsuspecting 
nature  made  him  the  victim  of  clever  political  and  financial -rascals. 

4  The  contemporary  criticism  of  Grant  by  men  of  the  highest  political  wisdom 
was  one  of  pity  rather  than  censure.    George  William  Curtis  wrote  to  a  friend 
in  1870,  "  I  think  the  warmest  friends  of  Grant  feel  that  he  has  failed  terribly 
as  a  President,  but  not  from  want  of  honesty."   James  Russell  Lowell  wrote,  "  I 
liked  Grant,  and  was  struck  by  the  pathos  of  his  face  ;  a  puzzled  pathos  as  of  a 
man  with  a  problem  before  him  of  which  he  does  not  understand  the  terms." 


49 2  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

In  his  treatment  of  the  South,  for  example,  Grant  was 
changed  by  his  radical  Republican  associates,  like  Benjamin 
F.  Butler,  from  a  generous  conqueror  into  a  narrow,  partisan 
dictator.  "  He  dwindled  from  the  leader  of  the  people,"  says 
Dunning,  "  to  the  figurehead  of  a  party."  At  Appomattox  he 
had  been  noble.  In  a  visit  to  the  Southern  states,  a  few  months 
after  the  close  of  the  war,  he  had  become  convinced,  as  he 
wrote,  that  "  the  mass  of  thinking  men  at  the  South  accepted  in 
good  faith  "  the  outcome  of  the  struggle.  Yet  as  President  he 
upheld  the  disgraceful  negro  governments  of  the  Reconstruc 
tion  Act,  and  constantly  furnished  troops  to  keep  the  carpetbag 
and  scalawag  officials  in  power  in  the  South,  in  order  to  provide 
Republican  votes  for  congressmen  and  presidential  electors.1 

697.  LOW  Probably  the  tone  of  public  morality  was  never  so  low  in  all 

tone  of  public  11-  t     r  •  •  •       i  r 

morality  in      our  country  s  history,  before  or  since,  as  it  was  in  the  years  of 

mSistratfon    Grant's  administration  (1869-1877),  although  a  more  honest 
1869-1877          President  never  sat  in  the  White  House.    The  unsettled  con 
dition   of   the   country  during  the  Civil  War  and  the  era  of 
Reconstruction  furnished  a  great  opportunity  for  dishonesty. 
Large  contracts  for  supplies  of  food,  clothing,  ammunition,  and 
equipment  had  to  be  filled  on  short  notice.    Men  grew  rich  on 
fraudulent  deeds.    Our  state  legislatures  and  municipal  govern 
ments  fell  into  the  hands  of  corrupt  "  rings."    The  notorious 
,  "  Boss  "  Tweed  robbed  the  city  of  New  York  of  millions  of 

dollars  before  he  closed  his  career  in  the  Ludlow  Street  jail  in 
1878.  Corruption  reached  the  highest  offices  of  state.  Secre 
tary  of  War  Belknap  resigned  in  order  to  escape  impeachment 
for  sharing  the  graft  from  the  dishonest  management  of  army 
posts  in  the  West.  The  President's  private  secretary,  Babcock, 
was  implicated  in  frauds  which  robbed  the  government  of  its 

1  Congress,  by  the  "Force  Bill"  of  February,  1871,  established  federal 
supervision  over  elections  for  the  House  of  Representatives.  From  1870  to 
1878  the  United  States  spent  from  $60,000  to  $100,000  on  each  congressional 
election.  In  the  presidential  contest  of  1876,  which  cost  the  government 
$275,000,  the  polling  places  in  the  Southern  states  were  supervised  by  7000 
deputy  marshals  of  the  United  States. 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction  493 

revenue  tax  on  whisky.  Western  stagecoach  lines,  in  league  with 
corrupt  post-office  officials,  made  false  returns  of  the  amount  of 
business  done  along  their  routes,  and  secured  large  appropria 
tions  from  Congress  for  carrying  the  mails.  Some  of  these  "  pet 
routes,"  or  "  star  routes, "%  cost  the  government  thousands  of 
dollars  annually  and  carried  less  than  a  dozen  letters  a  week. 
Members  of  Congress  so  far  lost  their  sense  of  official  propriety 
as  to  accept  large  amounts  of  railroad  stock  as  "  a  present " 
from  men  who  wanted  legislative  favors  for  their  roads. 

Before  Grant's  first  term  was  over,  a  reform  movement  was  698.  The  re 
started  in  the  Republican  party  to  protest  against  corruption  in  me^ 
national,  state,  and  municipal  government.    The  chief  policies  l8?2 
advocated  by  the  new  party  were,  first,  civil  service  reform, 
by  which  appointments  to  office  should  be  made  on  the  basis 
of  the  merit  and  not  of  the  political  "  pull "  of  the  candidates ; 
second,  tariff  reform,  by  which  the  highly  protective  war  duties, 
which  were  enriching  a  few  manufacturers  at  the  cost  of  the 
mass  of  the  people,  should  be  reduced ;  third,  the  complete 
cessation  of  Federal  military  intervention  to  support  the  carpet 
bag  governments  of  the  South. 

Had  the  reform  party  shown  the  same  wisdom  in  the  choice  699.  Defeat 
of  a  candidate  and  the  management  of  their  campaign  as  they 
did  in  the  making  of  their  platform,  they  might  have  defeated  l872 
Grant  in  1872  and  put  an  end  to  the  corrupt  and  bigoted  par 
tisan  government   which   he  was    powerless    to  control.     But 
dissensions  in  their  own  camp   (always  the  curse  of  reform 
movements  in  politics)   prevented  the   delegates  to   the  new 
party's  convention  in  Cincinnati,  May,  1872,  from  nominating 
their  strongest  candidate,  Charles  Francis  Adams  of   Massa 
chusetts.1  They  finally  united  on  Horace  Greeley,  editor  of  the 

1  Adams  was  our  admirable  minister  to  England  during  the  Civil  War.  Both 
his  father  (John  Quincy  Adams)  and  his  grandfather  (John  Adams)  had  been 
Presidents  of  the  United  States.  The  leader  of  the  reform  movement  was  Carl 
Schurz,  a  German  refugee  who  had  come  to  this  country  during  the  troublous 
days  following  the  revolutions  of  1848  in  western  Europe.  He  attained  the  rank 
of  major  general  in  our  Civil  War,  and  was  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in  President 
Hayes's  cabinet.  His  foreign  birth  disqualified  him  for  the  presidency. 


494 


The  Crisis  of  Disunion 


700.  Im 
proved  politi- 
cal  conditions   Grant 


New  York  Tribune,  a  vehement,  irritable  man,  who  had  no 
qualifications  for  the  high  office  of  President,  and  whose  only 
real  point  of  agreement  with  the  reformers  was  a  desire  to  see 
the  Southern  states  delivered  from  the  radical  Reconstruction 
governments.  Greeley's  defeat  at  the  polls  in  November,  1872, 
was  overwhelming.  He  carried 
only  six  states,  with  66  electoral 
votes,  while  thirty-one  states, 
with  286  votes,  went  for  Grant.1 
The  second  administration  of 
(1873-1877)  saw  the 
secon^term  gradual  recovery  of  the  nation 
from  the  political  and  commer 
cial  corruption  of  the  years  im 
mediately  following  the  war.  A 
severe  financial  panic  which 
broke  in  1873  sobered  the  busi 
ness  men  of  the  country  and 
checked  the  wild  speculation  in 
lands  and  railroads  which  had  characterized  the  five-year  period 
immediately  preceding.2  By  1874  the  states  of  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Arkansas,  and  Texas,  which  were 
all  either  under  military  government  or  cursed  by  the  carpet 
bag  negro  governments  of  Reconstruction  at  the  beginning  of  i 
Grant's  term  of  office,  had  regained  "  home  rule  "  under  their 

1  Greeley  died,  overwhelmed  with  domestic  sorrow  and  political  disappoint 
ment,  three  weeks  after  the  election.   The  unfortunate  end  of  his  career  must 
not  blind  us  to  his  great  services  before  the  war  in  the  antislavery  cause. 

2  During  the  years  1865-1868  about  8000  miles  of  railroad  were  laid  down; 
during  the  years  1869-1873  nearly  24,000  miles  were  built.  Business  was  humming 
in  1872.   Credit  was  widely  extended,  and  we  were  importing  about  $75,000,000 
worth  more  of  goods  annually  than  we  were  exporting.   The  panic  was  started 
with  the  failure  of  the  great  banking  house  of  Jay  Cooke,  which  had  rendered 
the  government  inestimable  services  in  floating  its  loans  during  the  war.    Finan 
cial  panics  are  very  difficult  things  to  explain.   They  seem  to  occur  about  every 
twenty  years  (1819,  1837,  1857,  1873,  1893,  1907).   An  ingenious  theory  is  that 
each  generation  of  business  men  needs  to  go  through  a  panic  to  learn  to  exchange 
the  youthful  idea  of  getting  rich  in  a  hurry  for  the  more  sobered  and  matured 
view  of  a  conservative  and  steady  progress  in  material  wealth. 


Horace  Greeley 


The  Era  of  Reconstntction  495 

native  white  leaders,  and  were  of  course  solidly  Democratic. 
The  Republicans  had  lost  all  chance  of  building  up  an  endur 
ing  party  in  the  states  of  the  secession  by  forcing  the  rule  of 
the  negro  on  the  South.  The  congressional  election  of  1874 
was  a  landslide.  The  Democrats,  for  the  first  time  since 
Buchanan's  election  in  1856,  got  a  majority  of  the  House  of 
Representatives.  The  election  meant  that  the  country  was 
turning  to  other  duties  more  important  than  keeping  fresh  the 
memory  of  the  "  crime  of  rebellion."  Questions  of  the  cur 
rency,  of  transportation,  of  the  tariff,  of  immigration,  of  civil 
service  reform,  of  monopolies,  of  capital  and  labor,  were  coming 
to  the  fore.  In  1872  a  national  labor  party  was  in  the  field 
with  demands  for  an  eight-hour  working  day  and  free  public 
education  at  the  nation's  expense.  In  1876  the  farmers  of  the 
West  were  demanding  national  regulation  of  the  railroads,  and 
money  issued  directly  by  the  government  instead  of  a  currency 
based  on  the  Eastern  bankers'  gold  and  silver. 

In  the  national  convention  of  1876  the  Republicans  rejected  701.  The 
the  brilliant  but  somewhat  discredited  Speaker  of  the  House,  campaign,  C 
James  G.  Elaine  of  Maine,1  and  nominated  a  man  of  sterling  l876 
honesty  and  conciliatory  views  on  the  Southern  question,  Gen 
eral  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  governor  of  Ohio.    The  Democrats 
nominated  Governor  Samuel  J.  Tilden  of  New  York,  who  had 
won  a  national  reputation  for  his  good  work  in  the  exposure  of 
the  rascality  of  the  Tweed  Ring.    The  result  of  the  Hayes- 
Tilden  campaign  was  of  little  importance,  for  the  choice  of  either 
man  meant  the  inauguration  of  a  new  era  in  our  politics,  —  the 
end  of  the  carpetbag  rule  in  the  South,  and  of  the  tyranny  of 
the  radical  Republican  Congress,  which  disgraced  the  country 
during    the   administrations  of   Johnson   and   Grant.    But  the 

1  Elaine  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  men  in  the  history  of  American  politics. 
In  his  personal  charm,  his  splendid  oratory,  his  keenness  in  debate,  his  hold  on 
the  affections  of  his  followers,  he  resembled  his  great  predecessor  in  the  chair 
of  the  House,  Henry  Clay.  But  Elaine  was  far  inferior  to  Clay  in  moral  stature. 
He  was  involved  in  dealings  with  Western  railroads  which  even  his  highly  dramatic 
speech  of  self-defense  in  the  House  could  not  make  seem  regular  and  honest  to 
his  countrymen.  We  shall  meet  his  name  later  in  these  pages. 


496  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

election  itself  was  the  most  exciting  in  our  history.  Late  in  the 
evening  of  election  day  (November  7,  1876)  it  was  known  that 
Tilden  had  carried  enough  states  to  give  him  184  electoral  votes. 
Only  185  votes  were  necessary  for  a  choice.  A  double  set  of 
returns  came  from  the  four  states  of  South  Carolina,  Florida, 
Louisiana,  and  Oregon.1  A  single  vote  from  any  of  these  states, 
therefore,  would  give  Tilden  the  election.  The  Hayes  managers 
claimed  all  the  disputed  votes  ;  but  there  was  no  provision  made 
in  the  Constitution  or  in  any  law  of  Congress  to  decide  which 
set  of  returns  was  legal.  The  Constitution  says  in  regard  to  the 
electoral  vote  merely  that  "  the  president  of  the  Senate  shall, 
in  the  presence  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 
open  all  the  certificates,  and  the  votes  shall  then  be  counted  " 
(Amendment  XII).  Counted  by  whom  ?  If  by  the  House,  Til 
den  would  be  elected,  since  the  House  was  Democratic  and  would 
choose  to  count  the  Democratic  certificates ;  if  by  the  Senate, 
which  was  Republican,  Hayes  would  of  course  be  elected. 
702.  The  Excitement  ran  high  as  the  winter  of  1876-1877  passed,  and 

Commission,  tne  possibility  presented  itself  of  the  country's  being  without  a 
1877  President  on  March  4,  1877.    As  a  compromise  an  Electoral 

Commission  of  fifteen  members  was  created  by  act  of  Congress, 
to  consist  of  five  senators  (3  Republicans,  2  Democrats),  five  con 
gressmen  (3  Democrats,  2  Republicans),  and  five  justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court  (2  Republicans,  2  Democrats,  and  one  to  be 
elected  by  these  four).  The  fifteenth  member,  Justice  Bradley, 
voted  with  the  Republicans  on  every  question.  By  a  vote  of  8  to 
7  the  Republican  certificates  were  accepted  from  all  the  states  in 
dispute,  and  Hayes  was  declared  President  by  an  electoral  vote 
of  185  to 1 8 4.  The  decision  was  reached  on  the  eve  of  inaugura 
tion  day,  and  the  new  President  took  the  oath  of  office  in  perfect 

1  The  double  set  of  returns  from  the  three  Southern  states  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  carpetbag  governments  which  were  still  in  control  there  rejected  the 
votes  of  some  districts  on  the  ground  that  there  had  been  fraud  and  intimidation 
at  the  polls.  In  Oregon  one  of  the  Republican  electors  chosen  was  disqualified  by 
the  fact  that  he  held  a  federal  office  in  the  state,  and  the  Democrats  insisted  that 
the  man  with  the  next  highest  vote  on  the  list  (a  Democrat)  should  replace  him. 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction  497 

security  and  tranquillity.  That  the  inauguration  of  a  man  whom 
more  than  half  the  country  believed  to  have  been  fairly  defeated 
on  election  day  could  take  place  without  a  sign  of  civil  com 
motion  is  perhaps  the  most  striking  proof  in  our  history  of  the 
moderate  and  law-abiding  character  of  the  American  people.1 

Meanwhile  the  administrations  of  Johnson  and  Grant  had  703.  Foreign 
witnessed  important  negotiations  with  foreign  countries.  We 
have  already  noticed  how  both  England  and  France  favored  the 
South  in  our  Civil  War,  and  how  eager  the  agents  of  the  Con 
federacy  were  to  get  substantial  aid  from  these  countries,  until 
the  disasters  at  Vicksburg  and  Gettysburg  made  the  Southern 
cause  seem  hopeless  to  Europe  (p.  454).  Emperor  Napoleon  III 
thought  the  moment  of  civil  strife  in  America  favorable  for  the 
expansion  of  French  interests  in  the  Western  Hemisphere. 
He  prevailed  upon  Archduke  Maximilian,  brother  of  the  em 
peror  of  Austria,  to  accept  the  "  throne  of  Mexico,"  and  sent 
an  army  of  50,000  Frenchmen  to  uphold  his  dynasty.  Maxi 
milian,  with  his  French  army,  easily  made  himself  master  of 
Mexico ;  but  when  our  Civil  War  was  over,  Secretary  Seward 
politely  informed  the  Emperor  of  the  French  that  the  United 
States  could  not  allow  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to  be  thus  infringed, 
and  that  no  part  of  this  Western  Hemisphere  was  open  to  the 
encroachment  of  European  powers.  At  the  same  time,  General 
Grant,  acting  on  the  President's  orders,  sent  General  Sher 
man  with  an  army  to  the  Mexican  border  (1865).  Napoleon, 
realizing  that  his  position  was  untenable,  withdrew  his  troops 
from  Mexico,  treacherously  abandoning  Maximilian  to  his  fate. 
The  unfortunate  archduke  was  taken  by  the  Mexicans,  court- 
martialed,  and  shot  (June,  1867). 

1  Great  credit  is  due  Tilden  for  his  honorable  and  patriotic  refusal  to  listen 
to  any  proposal  of  a  resort  to  force  in  behalf  of  his  claims.  Whether  or  not 
Hayes  was  fairly  elected  it  is  impossible  to  know.  The  votes  of  South  Caro 
lina  and  Florida  in  all  probability  were  rightly  his,  but  Louisiana  was  more 
doubtful.  On  the  one  hand,  intimidation  kept  the  negroes  from  casting  their  Re 
publican  votes,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Republican  returning  board  was  charged 
with  fraud  in  the  counting.  Which  of  these  wrongs  outbalanced  the  other  is  im 
possible  to  say.  Tilden  had  a  large  majority  of  the  popular  vote  of  the  country. 


498  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

704.  The          The  British  government  entertained  no  such  wild  scheme  as 
claims          Napoleon's  of  setting  up  an  empire  in  the  Western  Hemisphere, 

but  its  offense  against  the  United  States  was  more  direct  and 
serious.  In  spite  of  warnings  from  our  minister,  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  the  British  Foreign  Secretary,  Lord  Russell,  allowed  war 
ships  built  for  the  Confederacy  to  leave  the  ports  of  England  to 
prey  on  the  commerce  of  the  United  States.  The  Florida  sailed 
in  March,  1862,  and  the  famous  Alabama  slipped  away  from 
Liverpool  in  July.  The  next  summer  two  ironclad  rams  were 
ready  to  leave  Laird's  shipyards,  when  they  were  stopped  by 
Lord  Russell,  to  whom  Adams  wrote  curtly,  "  It  would  be  super 
fluous  in  me  to  point  out  to  your  Lordship  that  this  is  war." 
The  damage  done  to  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  by  the 
Alabama  and  the  other  cruisers  built  in  England  for  the 
Confederacy  was  immense.1  Not  only  did  they  destroy  some 
$20,000,000  worth  of  our  merchant  ships  and  cargoes  on  the 
high  seas,  but  their  encouragement  of  the  Confederate  cause 
prolonged  the  war  perhaps  for  many  months. 

705.  The          Charles  Sumner,  the  chairman  of  the  Senate  committee  on 
Geneva  tri 
bunal,  1872    foreign  relations,  made  the  extravagant  demand  that  the  British 

government  should  pay  $200,000,000  damages  and  give  up  all 
its  colonies  on  the  mainland  of  America  (Canada,  Honduras, 
Guiana).  On  May  8,  1871,  British  and  American  commissioners 
signed  a  treaty  at  Washington  adjusting  some  points  of  dispute  in 
the  perennial  boundary  and  fishery  questions,  and  agreeing  that 
the  claims  of  the  United  States  for  damage  done  her  commerce 
by  the  Alabama  and  the  other  offending  cruisers  should  be  set 
tled  by  an  international  arbitration  tribunal  to  meet  at  Geneva 
in  Switzerland.  Besides  the  British  representative  (Lord  Cock- 
burn)  and  the  American  (Charles  Francis  Adams),  the  tribunal 

1  After  destroying  about  sixty  Northern  merchant  vessels,  the  Alabama  was 
sunk  by  the  Union  warship  Kearsarge,  Captain  Winslow,  in  a  spectacular  battle 
off  the  coast  of  Cherbourg,  France,  June  19,  1864.  The  SJienandoah,  another  swift 
commerce  destroyer  furnished  the  Confederates  by  England,  was  still  cruising 
in  the  Pacific  when  the  news  reached  her,  several  weeks  after  the  surrender  of 
Lee  and  Johnston,  that  the  Civil  War  was  over. 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction 


499 


contained  a  distinguished  statesman  from  each  of  the  countries  of 
Switzerland,  Italy,  and  Brazil.  The  tribunal  decided  that  Great 
Britain  had  been  guilty  of  a  breach  of  the  neutrality  laws  in 
allowing  the  cruisers  to  sail  from  her  ports,  and  awarded  the 
United  States  damages  to  the  amount  of  $15,500,000  in  gold 
(September,  I872).1 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  attitude  of  France  and  Great  Britain  706.  Thepur- 
toward  the  United  States  in  its  struggle  with  the  Southern  Con-  Alaska', 
federacy  was  the  friendly  bearing  of  Russia,  where,  by  a  strange  ^grch  3°' 
coincidence,  Czar  Alexander  II  freed  the  serfs  (March  3,  1861) 


Map  of  Alaska  superimposed  on  the  United  States 

less  than  two  years  before  Lincoln  published  his  Emancipation 
Proclamation.  Therefore,  when  Russia,  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
asked  us  to  buy  Alaska  of  her,  we  were  favorably  disposed 
toward  the  negotiations.  The  distant  arctic  region  had  appar 
ently  little  value  except  for  its  seal  fisheries,  but  Secretary 
Seward  closed  the  bargain  for  its  purchase,  March  30,  1867. 
The  price  paid  Russia  for  577,390  square  miles  of  frozen  terri 
tory  was  $7,200,000,  or  about  two  cents  an  acre.  It  has  proved 

1  At  the  same  time,  the  United  States  was  condemned  to  pay  Great  Britain 
about  $5,500,000  for  violating  the  fisheries  treaty  of  1818. 


500  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

an  exceptionally  good  purchase,  the  gold  taken  in  the  last  dec 
ade  from  the  Yukon  valley  alone  being  worth  far  more  than 
the  $7,200,000  paid  for  the  territory. 

707.  secre-          It  was  fortunate  for  the  country  that  we  had  two  such  able 
taries  Seward          .    .     n .   . 

and  Fish,         and  judicious  men  as  beward  and  Hamilton  Fish  at  the  head 

1866-1875  Q£  the  gtate  Department  during  the  troubled  administrations  of 
Johnson  and  Grant.  Fish,  who  was  one  of  the  few  good  ap 
pointments  of  President  Grant,  rendered  the  country  great  serv 
ices  besides  his  negotiations  with  Great  Britain  in  the  treaty  of 
Washington  and  the  Alabama  claims.  He  kept  the  President 
from  hastily  recognizing  the  Cubans  as  belligerents  in  their  re 
volt  against  Spanish  authority  in  the  island  in  the  summer  of 
1869  ;  and  four  years  later  brought  the  Spanish  government  to 
terms  for  the  rash  execution  of  eight  American  citizens  captured 
on  board  the  vessel  Virginius,  which  was  carrying  arms  to  the 
Cuban  rebels.  He  restrained  the  President  in  his  mad  desire 
to  purchase  and  annex  the  republic  of  Santo  Domingo  through 
a  treaty  negotiated  by  his  private  secretary.  Had  our  congres 
sional  leaders  been  men  of  the  stamp  of  Seward  and  Fish  dur 
ing  this  period,  instead  of  the  violent,  vindictive  Stevens,  the 
unspeakable  demagogue  Butler,  the  visionary  Sumner,  and  the 
proud,  uncompromising  partisan  Conkling,  American  history 
would  have  been  spared  many  humiliating  pages. 

708.  The  The  closing  year  of  Grant's  presidency  (1876)  was  the  cen- 
Exposition  at  tennial  of  American  independence.    The  event  was  celebrated 
f8h76ladelphia'    by  a  great  world's  fair  at  Philadelphia,  the  birthplace  of  the 

republic.  Ten  million  visitors  to  the  exposition  grounds  caught 
the  inspiration  of  the  wonderful  achievements  in  science  and 
invention  which  the  years  of  peace  were  bringing  forth.  The 
Centennial  Exposition  was  a  pledge  of  the  recovery  of  our  nation 
from  the  political,  industrial,  and  financial  difficulties  brought  on 
by  the  awful  Civil  War.  Already  the  rule  of  the  stranger  was 
passing  in  the  Southern  states,  and  a  Mississippi  congressman 
had  pronounced  a  eulogy  over  the  body  of  Charles  Sumner, 
exhorting  his  fellow  countrymen  to  know  one  another  that  they 


The  Era  of  Reconstruction  501 

might  love  one  another  (1874).  Already  the  United  States  had 
passed  a  law  pledging  the  payment  of  every  dollar  of  its  war 
debt  in  the  precious  metals  of  gold  and  silver  (1875).  Already 
a  national  convention  had  declared  in  its  platform  that  "  the 
United  States  is  a  nation  and  not  a  mere  league  of  states" 
(1876).  It  had  taken  a  full  hundred  years,  and  cost  a  long  and 
bloody  war  to  decide  that  point.  The  century  had  seen  the 
rounding  out  of  our  national  domain.  The  railroad  ran  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  all  the  area  between  had  been 
organized  into  states  or  territories.  The  country  was  ready  for 
new  tasks,  and  the  belted  wheels,  the  giant  shafts,  the  electric 
lights,  the  splendid  specimen  products  of  the  farms,  gardens, 
and  wheat  fields  of  the  land;  the  improved  models  in  machinery, 
and  the  wonderful  inventions  in  transportation,  which  were  dis 
played  at  the  Centennial  Exposition  of  1876,  were  all  a  witness 
and  a  prophecy  of  the  new  era  of  industrial  expansion  on  which 
we  were  entering. 

REFERENCES 

How  the  North  used  its  Victory  :  W.  A.  DUNNING,  Reconstruction, 
Political  and  Economic  (American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  i-v ;  also 
Military  Government  during  Reconstruction  and  The  Process  of  Recon 
struction  (Essays  en  the  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction) ;  W.  L.  FLEMING, 
Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  ii-v ;  J.  W.  BUR 
GESS,  Reconstruction  and  the  Constitution,  chaps,  i— viii ;  J.  G.  BLAINE, 
Twenty  Years  of  Congress,  ~Vo[.  II,  chaps,  i-xii ;  WILLIAM  MACDONALD, 
Select  Documents  of  United  States  History,  1861-1898,  Nos.  42-44,  50-52, 
56-62 ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  IV, 
Nos.  145-153;  HUGH  McCuLLOCH,  Men  and  Measures  of  Half  a  Cen 
tury,  chaps,  xxv-xxvii ;  J.  F.  RHODES,  History  of  the  United  States  from 
the  Compromise  of  1850,  Vol.  V,  chap,  xxx ;  Vol.  VI,  chaps,  xxxi,  xxxii; 
series  of  articles  on  Reconstruction  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol. 
LXXXVII,  pp.  1-15,  145-157,  354-365.  473-484- 

The  Recovery  of  the  Nation:  DUNNING  (Am.  Nation)  chaps,  v-xxi; 
also  The  Impeachment  and  Trial  of  President  Johnson  (Essays  on  the 
Civil  War  and  Reconstruction};  FLEMING,  Vol.  I,  chap,  vi;  Vol.  II, 
chaps,  vii-xiii ;  BURGESS,  chaps,  ix-xiv ;  BLAINE,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xiii- 
xxv ;  E.  B.  ANDREWS,  The  United  States  in  our  own  Time,  chaps,  i-viii; 


5O2  The  Crisis  of  Disunion 

EDWARD  STANWOOD,  History  of  the  Presidency,  chaps,  xxiii-xxv;  P.  L. 
HAWORTH,  The  Hayes-Tilden  Election;  HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  159,  174- 
176;  MACDONALD,  Nos.  66-ioi  ;  McCuLLOCH,  chaps,  xxiii,  xxvii; 
RHODES,  Vol.  VI,  chaps,  xxxiii-xxxix ;  Vol.  VII,  chaps,  xl-xliv  ;  FRED 
ERICK  BANCROFT,  William  H.  Seward,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xl-xliii ;  HAMLIN 
GARLAND,  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  chaps,  xxxix-1 ;  T.  N.  PAGE,  The  People  of 
the  South  during  Reconstruction  (Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol.  LXXXVIII, 
pp.  289-304) ;  MOORFIELD  STORY,  Charles  Sumner,  chaps,  xix-xxiv. 

TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

j.  The  KuKluxKlans:  HART,  Vol.  IV,  No.  156;  RHODES,  Vol.  VI, 
pp.  180-191,  306-320;  FLEMING,  Vol.  II,  pp.  327-377  ;  W.  G.  BROWN, 
The  Lower  South  in  American  History,  pp.  191-225  ;  J.  W.  GARNER, 
Reconstruction  in  Mississippi,  pp.  338-353  ;  D.  L.  WILSON,  The  Kii-Klux 
Klans  (Century  Magazine,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  398-410) ;  MRS.  M.  L.  AVARY, 
Dixie  after  the  War,  pp.  268-278. 

2.  Thaddeus  Stevens,  Radical :  ELAINE,  Vol.  II,  pp.  128-133  ;  RHODES, 
Vol.  V,  pp.  541—544;  Vol.  VI,  pp.  13—34  ;  Reminiscences  of  Carl  Schurz, 
Vol.  Ill,  pp.  214-217  ;  S.  W.  McCALL,  Thaddeus  Stevens,  pp.  256-308; 
E.  B.   CALLENDER,    Thaddeus  Stevens,    Commoner;  A.  K.   McCLURE, 
Lincoln  and  Men  of  War  Times,  pp.  263-272. 

3.  The  Treaty  of  Washington:  C.F.  ADAMS,  Lee  at  Appomattox  and  Other 
Papers,  pp.  31-198  ;  RHODES,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  335-341,  360-376 ;  ANDREWS, 
pp.  87-92  ;  W.  II.  SEWARD,  Diplomatic  History  of  the  War  for  the  Union, 
pp. 446-481;  BANCROFT,VO!. II, pp. 382-399, 492-500;  STORY, pp. 340-3 50. 

4.  The  Reconstruction  of  Louisiana  :  RHODES,  Vol.  V,  pp.  52-57,  135- 
137;  Vol.  VII,  pp.  104-127  ;  MACDONALD,  No.  69;  ANDREWS,  pp.  80- 
85,  152-167  ;  ALBERT  PHELPS,  New  Orleans  and  Reconstruction  (Atlantic 
Monthly,  Vol.  LXXXVIII,  pp.  121-131) ;  C.  H.  MCCARTHY,  Lincoln's 
Plan  of  Reconstruction,  pp.  36-76,  314-383;  Why  the  Solid  South  (essays 
on  Reconstruction  by  noted  Southerners),  pp.  383-429 ;  E.  B.  SCOTT, 
Reconstruction  during  the  Civil  War,  pp.  325-373. 

5.  The  Purchase  of  Alaska:   HART,  Vol.  IV,  No.  174;  ELAINE,  Vol. 
II,  pp.  333-340 ;   MACDONALD,  No.  63 ;  F.   BANCROFT,  William   H. 
Seward,Vo\.  II,  pp.  474-479;  H.  H.  BANCROFT,  History  of  Alaska  (Works, 
Vol.  XXXIII,  ed.  of  1886),  pp.  590-629. 

6.  The  Quarrel  between  Johnson  and  Stanton :  RHODES,  Vol.  VI,  pp. 
65-68,  99-115;  MCCULLOCH,  pp.  390-398;  ELAINE,  Vol.  II,  pp.  348- 
355;    HART,  Vol.  IV,  No.  154;  G.  C.  GORHAM,  Edwin  M.  Stanton, 
Vol.  II,  pp.  393-445  ;  D.  M.  DEWiTT,  The  Impeachment  and  Trial  of 
Andrew  Johnson,  pp.  239-287,  314-338;  GARLAND,  pp.  365-372. 


PART    VII.      THE    POLITICAL    AND 
INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  RE 
PUBLIC  SINCE  THE  CIVIL  WAR 


PART  VII.    THE   POLITICAL  AND 

INDUSTRIAL    HISTORY    OF    THE 

REPUBLIC    SINCE   THE 

CIVIL  WAR 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

TWENTY  YEARS  OF  REPUBLICAN  SUPREMACY 

THE  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  AGE 

The  Civil  War  marks  a  turning  point  in  our  history.    While  709.  The 
it  settled  political  and  moral  questions  which  had  been  vexing  ^turning 
the  American  people  for  nearly  half  a  century,  it  opened  other  P°int.in 
questions,  industrial  and  economic,  which  have  been  increasingly  history 
absorbing  the  attention  of  our  statesmen  for  a  generation.    It 
cleared  the  way  for  the  development  of  the  great  free  West 
through  the  renewed  migration  of  the  farmer,  the  miner,  and 
the  ranchman,  —  a  migration  which  was  promoted  by  the  liberal 
distribution  of  public  lands  to  Western  settlers  and  the  comple 
tion  of  the  railway  to  the  Pacific  coast.    It  changed  the  scene 
and  the  setting  of  our  national  stage,  bringing  on  the  railroad 
magnate,  the  corporation  promoter,  the  capitalist  legislator,  the 
socialist  agitator,  in  place  of  the  old  champion  of  "  free  speech, 
free  soil,  free  men,"  and  the  old  defender  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union. 

It  will  help  us  to  understand  the  nature  of  this  new  economic  710.  it  de- 
age  if  we  notice  briefly  at  the  outset  some  of  the  more  impor-  supremacy  of 
tant  results  which  sprang  directly  from  the  Civil  War.    In  the 
first  place,  the  war  decided  the  supremacy  of  the  nation  over  the  states 

5°5 


506      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

states.  From  the  days  of  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution 
down  to  the  secession  of  South  Carolina,  there  had  been  widely 
divergent  opinions  among  our  statesmen  as  to  the  amount  of 
power  the  states  had  "  delegated  "  or  resigned  to  the  national 
government.  The  states,  both  North  and  South,  had  been  very, 
jealous  of  any  encroachment  upon  their  powers  and  privileges 
by  the  authorities  at  Washington.  They  had  frequently  claimed 
the  right  to  suspend  or  annul  an  act  of  Congress  which  they 
judged  to  be  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  ;  and  in  some  in 
stances  they  had  even  threatened  to  secede  from  the  Union 
unless  such  offensive  acts  were  repealed.1 

711.  in-  But  the  appeal  to  arms  in  1861-1865  na(^  n°t  onty  Put  to 

traordinary*"  rest  the  idea  of  a  separate  Southern  Confederacy  ;  it  had  stimu- 


the  ^atec*  ^e  nati°na^  government  to  the  exercise  of  great  and  un- 
President  and  usual  powers.  The  President  had  suspended  the  regular  process 

by  Congress 

during  the       of  the  courts  in  the  arrest  and  trial  of  men  for  treason  ;  he  had 

recognized  loyal  minorities  in  some  of  the  Southern  states  as 
the  true  state  governments  ;  he  had,  by  proclamation,  emanci 
pated  the  slaves  of  all  men  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States.  Congress  had  imposed  direct  taxes,  had  created  a  na 
tional  banking  system,  had  borrowed  huge  sums  of  money, 
had  put  into  circulation  paper  currency,  had  admitted  the  loyal  : 
counties  of  Virginia  to  the  Union  as  the  new  state  of  West  Vir 
ginia,  and  finally  proposed  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
(the  thirteenth)  abolishing  slavery  in  every  part  of  the  country. 
When  the  war  was  over,  therefore,  national  supremacy  was  firmly 
established  ;  and  it  has  grown  stronger  rather  than  weaker  in  \ 
the  years  that  have  followed. 

712.  The  war       Another,  and  a  still  more  important,  result  of  the  war  was  the 
dom  through-  decision  that  this  reunited  country  should  be  free  soil  from  sea 

out  the  whole  to  sea>    westward  expansion  has  been  the  most  influential  and 

American 

domain  continuous  factor  in  our  national  development.    From  the  days 

1  The  student  will  recall  the  protest  of  Virginia  and  Kentucky  against  the 
Alien  and  Sedition  laws  in  1798,  of  the  Hartford  Convention  against  the  War  of 
1812,  and  of  South  Carolina  against  the  tariff  acts  of  1828  and  1832  (pp.  202,  223,  273). 


a 

in  ^ 

D  O 

O  bo 


w   -5 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          507 

when  the  colonial  pioneers  first  pushed  across  the  ridges  of  the 
Alleghenies,  almost  all  our  great  political  problems  have  been 
intimately  connected  with  the  growth  of  our  country  and  the 
development  of  its  vast  natural  resources.  The  great  outburst 
of  national  enthusiasm  which  followed  the  War  of  1812  and 
which  was  encouraged  by  the  invention  of  the  reaper,  the 
steam  railway,  and  the  electric  telegraph  would  have  led  un 
doubtedly  to  the  rapid  extension  of  our  population  and  our 
industry  to  the  Far  West,  had  not  the  awful  slavery  question 
cast  its  sinister  shadow  across  the  path  of  the  pioneer.  The 
broad  fields  of  Kansas,  which  now  produce  a  hundred  million 
bushels  of  corn,  were  destined  first  to  be  fertilized  by  the  blood 
of  civil  strife.  The  triumph  of  the  cause  of  freedom  brought  the 
assurance  that  our  immense  Western  domain  was  to  be  filled  not 
by  hostile  factions  wrangling  over  the  constitutional  and  moral 
right  of  the  white  man  to  hold  the  negro  in  slavery,  but  by  fellow 
Americans  competing  in  the  generous  rivalry  of  developing  a 
common  heritage  and  building  a  new  empire  of  industry.  These 
two  great  principles  of  Union  and  Liberty,  vindicated  by  the 
Civil  War,  are  the  most  precious  possession  of  the  American 
people,  and  the  sole  guarantee  of  the  third  ideal  in  our  political 
trinity,  —  Democracy. 

But  in  the  very  settlement  of  the  questions  of  disunion  and  713.  New 
slavery  the  war  opened  up  other  problems,  some  of  which  have  openeTbythe 
become  as  serious  a  menace  as  disunion  or  slavery  to  our  Cmiwar 
national  welfare.   Aside  from  the  immediate  political  problem 
of  restoring  the  seceded  states  to  their  proper  position  in  the 
Union,  there  were  economic  questions  of  the  gravest  impor 
tance  to  face.    The  enormous  expenses  of  the  war  had  been 
met  in  three  ways,  —  by  increased  taxation,  by  borrowing,  and 
by  issuing  "  bills  of  credit."   These  latter  consisted  of  several 
hundred  million  dollars'  worth  of  paper  notes  on  which  was 
stamped  the  government's  promise  to  pay  the  holder  when  it 
should  have  the  money.    They  were  not,  like  our  present  paper 
"bills,"  the  "certificates"  or  assurance  that  the  government 


508      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

actually  had  in  its  vaults  the  gold  and  silver  to  pay  them.  A 
certain  amount  of  gold  the  government  was  obliged  to  have,  o: 
course,  to  pay  the  interest  on  its  bonds  —  for  neither  foreign  no] 
native  purchasers  of  those  bonds  would  accept  as  interest  simply 
the  government's  promise  to  pay,  printed  on  pieces  of  paper 
To  get  the  gold  necessary  to  pay  its  obligations  to  the  bond 
holders  and  so  keep  its  credit  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  th( 
government  was  obliged  to  look  to  the  wealthy  bankers  of  th( 
Eastern  cities,  who  alone  had  the  cash  available. 

714.  The  Now  the  result  of  such  dependence  of  the  government  on  th( 
sinister  power  .  ....... 

of  money  in     moneyed  men  was  highly  injurious  to  our  democratic  ideals. 

A  clique  of  Wall  Street  bankers  practically  managed  the  countr) 
during  Grant's  presidency ;  and  ever  since  that  time  the  grea 
capitalists  who  have  financed  our  railroads,  our  mines,  our  oi 
fields,  our  steel  mills,  and  our  packing  houses  have  expectec 
and  received  from  Congress  favors  and  immunities  which  havt 
made  them  fabulously  rich  and  bred  in  many  of  them  the  beliel 
that  the  government  exists  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  protect 
ing  and  increasing  their  private  wealth.  Corruption,  bribery,  anc 
graft  are  the  inevitable  results  of  the  undue  influence  of  mone) 
in  politics.  Men  are  put  into  office  for  the  favors  they  can  pro 
cure  for  the  business  interests  that  pay  their  election  expenses 
and  not 'for  the  services  they  can  render  to  their  city,  state,  01 
nation.  And  every  attempt  to  take  the  bestowal  of  public  office 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  professional  politician  and  restore  it  tc 
the  people  is  met  by  the  solid  opposition  of  the  party  "  machine,'1 
backed  by  its  accumulated  funds  of  corruption  and  bribery. 

715.  various       Along  with  the  problem  of  cleansing  our  politics  from  the 
lems^poiiticai  corrupting  influence  of  unscrupulous  or  "  tainted  "  wealth  have 
and  economic    g0ne  fae  great  problems  of  devising  a  tariff  which  shall  provide 

adequate  revenues  for  the  government  and  insure  American 
workmen  against  the  lower  wages  paid  in  foreign  countries, 
without  at  the  same  time  putting  millions  of  dollars  into  the 

1  The  student  will  remember  that  it  was  for  this  reason  that  Jackson  engaged 
in  his  bitter  struggle  with  the  United  States  Bank. 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          509 

already  swollen  pockets  of  a  few  trust  magnates  ;  of  controlling 
the  great  transportation  lines  and  other  industries  indispensable 
to  the  public  welfare  ;  of  conserving  our  forests,  coal  deposits, 
oil  fields,  water  sites,  and  phosphate  beds  ;  of  furnishing  a  cur 
rency  which  shall  be  abundant  enough  to  meet  the  needs  of  our 
rapidly  developing  business,  and  yet  not  so  plentiful  as  to  be 
cheap  in  the  eyes  of  the  Vorld  ;  of  preserving  the  peace  and 
protecting  property  threatened  by  violent  strikes  or  labor  wars  ; 
of  encouraging  the  prosperity  of  our  Western  farms  ;  of  increas 
ing  the  fertility  of  our  arid  plains  ;  and  of  regulating  the  flood 
of  foreign  immigration  to  our  shores. 

The  constant  occupation  of  our  government  in  the  last  genera-  716.  The 
tion  with  these  industrial  and  economic  problems  has  given  to  absorbing 

American  history  an  entirely  different  character  from  that  which  ec°n<>mic 

problems  on 
it  had  in  the  middle  years  of  the  nineteenth  century.    In  the  the  character 

first  place,  it  has  made  our  recent  history  much  more  difficult 
to  grasp.  Almost  everybody  can  understand  William  Lloyd 
Garrison's  impassioned  pleas  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  or 
Thomas  H.  Benton's  extravagant  prophecies  of  the  future  of 
the  Pacific  coast,  or  Daniel  Webster's  eloquent  defense  of  the 
Union  "  one  and.  inseparable,"  or  Abraham  Lincoln's  homely, 
honest  arguments  for  the  laws  of  the  country  and  of  humanity 
in  the  famous  debates  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  But  only  ex 
perts  can  follow  intelligently  the  arguments  for  and  against  an 
increase  in  the  amount  of  money  issued  by  the  banks  and  the 
Treasury,  or  judge  wisely  the  numerous  schedules  of  a  tariff  bill, 
or  grasp  the  complex  problems  involved  in  fixing  a  fair  rate 
which  a  railroad  may  charge  for  freight. 

Then,  too,  these  economic  questions  which  concern  our  gov-  717.  The  lack 
eminent  so  exclusively  to-day  seem  to  have  a  far  less  romantic 


character  than  the  great  moral  and  political  questions  of  half  a  an  economic 
century  ago.  "Union  "and"  liberty"  are  words  which  make  a  pow 
erful  appeal  to  the  people  at  large,  and  their  defense  invites  the 
best  efforts  of  the  orator  and  the  statesman.    But  the  everyday 
drudgery  of  our  political  housekeeping  necessary  to  preserve 


5IO      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

us  as  a  clean  and  orderly  nation  has  little  glamour  to  attract 
the  attention  and  applause  of  the  multitude.  It  is  only  in  the 
last  few  years,  with  the  unprecedented  development  of  our  great 
monopolies  beyond  the  restraints  of  law,  that  the  regulation  of 
private  wealth,  the  "  curbing  of  the  trusts,"  the  protection  of 
the  public  health,  the  conservation  of  our  natural  resources,  the 
purging  of  our  cities,  —  all  have  assumed  the  nature  of  a  moral 
crusade,  comparable  to  the  antislavery  movement  and  the  rising 
for  the  Union. 

718.  The  In  the  pages  which  follow,  the  student  will  find  two  main  in- 

ences  at  work  fluences  at  work,  —  the  rapid  economic  development  of  a  free, 


in  ent  hTTr  un^ec^  people  ;  and  the  efforts  of  popular  government  to  con 
trol  that  development  by  the  due  forms  of  law.  Our  military 
history,  except  for  the  episode  of  the  Spanish  War  of  1898  and 
the  Philippine  insurrection,  has  been  insignificant  in  the  last 
generation.  Our  diplomatic  relations  are  meager  when  com 
pared  with  those  of  European  states.  Our  political  questions 
are  mainly  those  raised,  not  by  differences  of  opinion  on  the 
meaning  of  phrases  of  the  Constitution,  but  by  the  conflicting 
interests  of  producer  and  consumer,  of  freight  shipper  and 
freight  carrier,  of  capitalist  and  wage  earner.  We  are  living  in 
an  industrial  age. 

THE   REPUBLICAN  MACHINE 

719.  change        For  a  full  score  of  years  after  Lee  handed  his  sword  to 

lican^ar?^"  Grant    at   Appomattox,    Republican    Presidents  occupied   the 

after  1865        White  House,  and  during  more  than  half  that  period  Repub 

lican  majorities  sat  in  both  Houses  of  Congress.1    But  the  Re 

publican  party  of  Johnson  and  Grant  was  a  very  different  thing 

from  the  Republican  party  of  Abraham  Lincoln.    The  original 

1  The  Presidents  between  1865  and  1884  were  Johnson  (1865-1869),  Grant 
(1869-1877),  Hayes  (1877-1881),  Garfield  (1881),  Arthur  (1881-1885).  The 
Senate  was  Republican  except  for  the  last  two  years  of  Hayes's  administration 
(1879-1881),  while  the  House  went  Democratic  in  the  elections  of  1874,  1876, 
1878,  1882. 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          511 

party  was  formed  of  progressive  men,  —  "  come-outers  "  from 
the  Whigs  and  Democrats.  It  inscribed  on  its  banners  the  pres 
ervation  of  the  Union  and  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the 
territories  of  the  United  States.  Both  these  purposes  were  ful 
filled  in  1865,  when  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy  surrendered 
and  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  was  added  to  the  Constitution. 
With  its  high  aims  accomplished,  and  with  its  great  leader  mur 
dered,  the  Republican  party  underwent  a  striking  change  during 
the  second  decade  of  its  existence.  It  fell  under  the  domination 
of  a  group  of  uncompromising  men  in  Congress,  who  quarreled 
with  President  Johnson,  inflicted  the  severe  penalty  of  Recon 
struction  on  the  South,  maintained  the  high  tariffs  of  war  days, 
and  bent  every  effort  to  securing  a  permanent  hold  on  the 
machinery  of  the  government.  The  merits  of  the  Republican 
party  had  been  great ;  its  prestige  in  1865  was  fully  deserved ; 
but  when  it  sought  to  justify  its  blind  partisan  creed  that  the 
worst  Republican  was  better  than  the  best  Democrat,  on  the 
ground  that  "  the  party  which  had  saved  the  Union  must  rule 
it,"  it  was  passing  beyond  the  limits  of  good  sense. 

We  have  seen  how  the  Republican  majorities  in  Congress  720.  The 
flouted  President  Johnson,  and  how  the  Senate,  in  the  exciting  Jf£f JJJJJ21  °f 

impeachment  trial,  came  within  a  single  vote  of  ejecting  him  Republican 

congressmen 
from  the  highest  office  of  the  Republic.  We  have  seen  how  these  1866-1876 

same  majorities  managed  the  simple,  guileless  Grant,  forcing  him 
"  for  party's  sake  "  into  a  policy  of  ungenerous  coercion  toward 
the  South ;  imploring  him  "  for  party's  sake  "  to  cover  up  rev 
elations  of  fraud  and  misgovernment ;  encouraging  him  "  for 
party's  sake  "  to  form  a  close  alliance  between  the  government 
and  the  great  financiers,  whose  wealth,  protected  and  fostered 
by  high-tariff  legislation,  was  so  convenient  a  factor  in  the 
winning  of  political  campaigns.  We  have  seen  how  corrupt 
rings  and  cliques  plundered  the  public  treasury,  defrauding  the 
honest  taxpayer  of  millions  of  dollars.1 

1  See  pages  490-493  for  the  impeachment  of  President  Johnson  and  the  account 
of  the  state  of  the  country  during  Grant's  term  of  office. 


512       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


721.  The 
public  do 
main  seized 
by  « land 
sharks  " 


722.  The 
generosity  of 
Congress 
toward  the 
Pacific  rail 
roads 


723.  The 
Union  Pacific 
and  the  Credit 
Mobilier 
scandal 


Not  only  the  public  treasury  but  the  public  domain  also  was 
plundered.  Our  government,  always  generous  in  its  encourage 
ment  of  Western  migration,  had  outdone  itself  in  the  Home 
stead  Act  of  1862,  which  gave  a  tract  of  160  acres  free  of 
charge  to  any  head  of  a  family  who  would  cultivate  it  for  five 
years.  In  a  little  over  ten  years  after  the  passage  of  the  act 
40,000,000  acres  of  our  public  land  (an  area  equal  to  more 
than  one  fourth  the  surface  of  France)  were  given  away,  osten 
sibly  as  "homesteads,"  but  actually  often  to  "land  grabbers" 
or  "land  sharks."  These  men,  by  submitting  fraudulent  lists 
of  "  settlers  "  to  the  land  office,  accumulated  immense  estates, 
which  contained  invaluable  resources  of  timber,  minerals,  and 
water  power.  Their  spirit  was  expressed  in  the  words  of  one 
of  the  Montana  land  sharks,  "  We  who  are  on  the  ground  in 
tend  to  get  whatever  land  there  is  lying  around."  The  discovery 
of  copper,  silver,  and  gold  in  Montana,  Colorado,  Idaho,  Dakota, 
Wyoming,  and  Nevada  enhanced  the  value  of  these  public  lands 
a  hundredfold,  and  put  into  private  purses  wealth  that  would 
have  been  sufficient  to  maintain  our  government. 

In  the  same  year  that  it  passed  the  Homestead  Act  (1862) 
Congress  chartered  five  Pacific  Railroad  companies,  and  in  the 
years  immediately  following  granted  these  companies  over  100,- 
000,000  acres  of  public  lands  and  loans  in  government  bonds 
amounting  to  $60,000,000.  The  47,000,000  acres  granted  to 
the  Northern  Pacific  alone  were  estimated  by  a  high  official  in 
the  railroad  business  to  be  valuable  enough  "  to  build  the  entire 
railroad  to  Puget  Sound,  to  fit  out  a  fleet  of  sailing  vessels  and 
steamers  for  the  China  and  India  trade,  and  leave  a  surplus 
that  would  roll  up  into  the  millions." 

In  spite  of  the  generosity  of  Congress,  private  capital  was 
very  wary,  and  only  about  ten  miles  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail 
road  had  been  built  by  1865,  when  a  company  called  the  "  Credit 
Mobilier  of  America  "  signed  a  contract  with  the  Union  Pacific 
Company  to  finish  the  work.  With  the  help  of  further  liberal 
grants  from  the  government  the  immense  task  of  running  a 


T^venty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          5 1 3 

railroad  1800  miles  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  Pacific 
coast,  over  yawning  chasms  and  precipitous  ledges,  through 
long  deserts  where  the  only  signs  of  life  were  the  black  herds 
of  buffaloes  or  the  hostile  bands  of  Sioux  and  Cheyennes,  was 
finally  accomplished.  On  the  tenth  of  May,  1869,  the  last  spike, 
completing  rail  connections  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco, 
was  driven  at  Ogden,  Utah.  But  even  this  greatest  feat  of 
American  engineering  (with  the  exception  of  the  construction 
of  the  Panama  Canal)  was  performed  under  the  shadow  of  our 


Driving  the  Last  Spike  in  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 

widespread  corruption.  Members  of  Congress  were  guilty  of 
accepting  shares  of  the  Cre'dit  Mobilier  stock  in  return  for  their 
votes  granting  legislative  favors  to  the  road. 

The  protest  against  the  corrupt  rule  of  the  Republican  ma-  724.  The 
chine  in  President  Grant's  day  came  chiefly  from  the  agricul-  t£e  Grangers 
tural  West.     A   secret  organization,   called  the    Grangers,   or  Jj^jj^j}^ 
Patrons  of  Husbandry,  founded  by  the  farmers  in  1867,  had  seventies 
grown  by    1875   to  number  over   1,500,000  members,  living 
mostly  in  the   South   and  West.    The  main    purpose   of  the 
Grangers  was  to  get  favorable  transportation  rates  for  the  prod 
ucts  of  their  farms.    The  railroad  mileage  of  the  country  had 


514      History  of  the  Republic,  since  the  Civil  War 

increased  from  30,000  miles  in  1860  to  50,000  in  1870,  and  was 
growing  at  the  rate  of  3000  miles  a  year.  Between  1869  and 
1873  the  New  York  Central,  the  Hudson  River,  and  the  Lake 
Shore  roads  were  joined  to  make  through  connections  between 
New  York  and  Chicago  under  a  single  management.  By  1875 
there  were  five  trunk  lines  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Atlantic 
seaboard.  The  high  rates  of  freight  charged  by  these  roads  to 
repay  the  cost  of  their  construction  and  maintenance,  their 
greediness  for  public-land  grants  and  state  subsidies,  their  rate 
discriminations  in  favor  of  big  shippers  or  chosen  localities,  all 
turned  popular  feeling  in  the  West  decidedly  against  the  rail 
roads  after  1870. 

725.  DC-  The  financial  panic  which  came  upon  the  country  in  1873, 
Sboring* class  sending  up  the  price  of  living  and  causing  great  misery  among 

the  working  classes,  still  further  widened  the  gap  between  the 
privileged  rich  and  the  struggling  poor,  between  capital  and 
labor,  monopoly  and  destitution.  Strikes  occurred,  especially 
on  the  railroads  and  in  the  mines.  Labor  congresses,  held  in 
our  largest  cities,  made  public  the  demands  of  the  working 
classes  for  an  eight-hour  day,  for  the  exclusion  of  Chinese 
laborers  from  the  country,  for  the  government  inspection  of 
mines  and  factories,  for  the  direct  issue  of  money  by  the  gov 
ernment  instead  of  by  the  banks,  for  the  cessation  of  land 
grants  to  railroads  or  corporations,  for  the  regulation  of  rail 
road  rates,  a  tax  on  incomes,  and  the  establishment  of  a  national 
Department  of  Labor  at  Washington. 

726.  The  The  agitation  for  the  relief  of  the  debtor  class  and  the  reform 
Greenback-      °f  lab°r  conditions  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the  National 

party»  Greenback-Labor  party,  which  entered  the  presidential  contest 
of  1876  with  the  New  York  philanthropist  Peter  Cooper  as  its 
candidate,  and  with  a  platform  demanding  that  the  government 
suppress  the  bank  issues  of  currency  and  make  its  own  unlimited 
issue  of  greenbacks  legal  tender  for  the  payment  of  all  debts. 
Cooper  received  only  82,000  votes,  but  in  the  next  congressional 
election  (1878)  the  Greenback  party  polled  over  1,000,000  votes. 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          5 !  5 


It  was,  therefore,  a  critical  situation  that  faced  Mr.  Hayes 
when  the  Electoral  Commission  voted  him  into  the  presidential 
chair  on  the  second  of  March,  1877,  only  two  days  before  his 
inauguration  (p.  496).  Half  the  country  believed  that  Tilden 
had  been  elected.  Hayes  appeared  in  cartoons  with  the  word 
"  fraud  "  written  across  his  brow.  For  more  than  a  year  after 
his  inauguration  Congress  dallied  with  the  proposal  to  reopen 
the  question  of  his  title  to  the  presidency.  Moreover,  Hayes 
was  not  the  choice  of  the  leading  men  of  his  own  party.  The 
most  influential  senators  and  con 
gressmen  and  the  high  executive 
officers  were  still  "  machine  poli 
ticians,"  in  league  with  the  pro 
tected  corporations  and  financial 
monopolies  of  the  country.  They 
were  sore  that  the  reform  spirit, 
stirred  by  the  protest  of  the  West, 
had  forced  them  to  accept  for  their 
candidate  the  honest,  plodding,  pro 
saic  governor  of  Ohio  in  place  of 
the  brilliant,  but  unstable,  party 
leader,  James  G.  Elaine.  The  Re 
publican  Senate  no  less  than  the 
Democratic  House1  hampered  Hayes  in  every  way  possible, 
refusing  to  confirm  his  excellent  appointments,  upbraiding  him 
for  his  conciliatory  policy  toward  the  South,  and  sneering  at  him 
as  a  Puritan  and  an  ungrateful  hypocrite  for  his  desire  to  reform 
the  party  machine,  —  to  which,  after  all,  he  owed  his  high  office. 

In  spite  of  personal  unpopularity,  and  in  the  face  of  political 
and  economic  turmoil,  Mr.  Hayes  gave  the  country  one  of  the 
cleanest  and  most  courageous  administrations  in  its  history. 
He  immediately  withdrew  the  Federal  troops  that  were  still  up 
holding  the  negro  Republican  governments  in  Louisiana  and 


727.  Presi 
dent  Hayes 
antagonized 
by  the  ma 
chine  politi 
cians 


Rutherford  B.  Hayes 


728.  His 
excellent 
administra 
tion,  1877- 
1881 


1  The  Democrats  had  a  majority  of  20  in  the  House,  while  the  Republicans 
held  the  Senate  by  a  single  vote  (38  to  37). 


5 1 6      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

South  Carolina,  letting  these  states  revert  to  the  Democratic 
column.1  He  still  further  incurred  the  wrath  of  the  Republican 
machine  by  dismissing  from  their  important  offices  Chester 
A.  Arthur  (collector  of  the  port  of  New  York),  and  Alonzo  B. 
Cornell  (naval  officer),  who  with  Thomas  Platt  and  Roscoe 
Conkling  made  up  the  "big  four"  who  ruled  the  politics  of 
New  York  state.  Soon  after  his  inauguration  severe  strikes, 
attended  by  rioting  and  the  destruction  of  property,  broke  out 
among  the  employees  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio,  the  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  the  Erie  railroads,  which  he  quelled  by  the  prompt 
dispatch  of  United  States  troops.  He  sent  a  commission  to 
China  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  negotiation  of  a  treaty  which 
would  protecjt  the  workers  of  our  Pacific  coast  against  the  inva 
sion  of  cheap  Mongolian  labor.2  He  strove  earnestly  to  repair 
the  faith  of  the  nation  in  the  eyes  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the 
Far  West,  who  had  been  fed  on  rotten  rations,  deceived  by 
false  promises,  robbed  by  unscrupulous  agents,  and  goaded  into 
uprisings  that  had  cost  our  government  over  $22,000,000  and 

1  Hayes  was  bitterly  attacked  and  shamefully  insulted  by  the  men  who  were 
unwilling,  twelve  years  after  the  war  had  ceased,  to  be  reconciled  with  their 
Southern  brethren,  whom  they  still  called  "  disloyal."   They  accused  the  Presi 
dent  of  having  made  a  "  corrupt  bargain  "  to  withdraw  the  troops  in  return  for 
Southern  votes ;  they  denounced  him  as  climbing  into  office  over  the  bodies  of 
tens  of  thousands  of  loyal  Union  soldiers ;  they  chided  him  for  appointing  a 
Southerner  to  a  cabinet  position.   "  To  keep  out  of  power  the  Democratic  party 
and  its  semirebellious  adherents  both  North  and  South,"  said  a  senator  from 
Massachusetts,  "  has  become  a  matter  of  supreme  importance  to  the  nation  and 
the  cause  of  humanity  itself." 

2  Between  1850  and  1860  the  Chinese  immigrants  to  our  shores  had  increased 
from  10,000  to  40,000.   The  work  on  the  western  end  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail 
road  attracted  tens  of  thousands  more  in  the  next  decade.   As  these  Chinese 
laborers  lived  on  a  few  cents  a  day  and  were  content  with  dirty  quarters  and  poor 
food,  they  were  a  menace  to  the  American  laborer  of  the  Pacific  coast,  who  de 
manded  "  four  dollars  a  day  and  roast  beef."    Mobs  in  California  and  Oregon 
organized,  to  "  run  out  of  town  "  the  Chinese  coolies,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  our 
government,  by  the  Burlingame  Treaty  of  1868,  had  guaranteed  the  Chinese 
visiting  our  shores  protection  in  trade,  religion,  and  free   travel.    In  1879  Con 
gress  repealed  the  Burlingame  Treaty,  but  Hayes  vetoed  the  bill.  Finally,  through 
the  efforts  of  the  Hayes  commission,  an  arrangement  was  made  with  China  by 
which  that  country  agreed  to  our  regulation  of  labor  immigration  from  her 
shores.    Under  President  Arthur  a  bill  was  passed  (1882),  entirely  excluding 
Chinese  laborers  for  a  period  of  ten  years.   The  Chinese  Exclusion  Bill  was 
renewed  in  1892  and  1902. 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          5  *  7 

the  lives  of  nearly  600  men  since  the  Civil  War.1  The  machine 
politicians  sneered  at  Hayes  as  a  "  weak  President "  and  a 
"  goody-goody,"  and  called  his  administration  "  a  bread  poul-* 
tice."  But  fair-minded  judges  who  had  no  political  favors  to 
ask  and  no  fraudulent  deals  to  cover  up  found  the  Hayes  ad 
ministration  no  mere  soothing  bread  poultice,  but  rather  a  strong 
mustard  plaster,  which  was  effective  in  bringing  out  the  poisons 
of  political  corruption. 

Two  financial  measures  of  importance  were  carried  in  Hayes's 
mid-term,  —  the  Bland- Allison  Act  for  the  coinage  of  silver,  and 
the  bill  for  resumption  of  specie  payments. 

From  Washington's  administration  till  long  after  the  close  of  729-  The  his- 

tory  of  silver 
the  Civil  War  comparatively  little  silver  was  coined  into  money  coinage  until 

at  the  United  States  mints.  The  business  of  the  country  was  not  x  7 
large  enough  to  demand  more  currency  for  its  transactions  than 
the  supply  of  gold  could  furnish.  The  government  stood  ready 
to  receive  silver  bullion  at  its  mints  for  coinage  at  the  estab 
lished  rate  of  fifteen  ounces  of  silver  to  one  ounce  of  gold  be 
fore  1834,  and  approximately  sixteen  ounces  of  silver  to  one 
ounce  of  gold  after  that  date.  But  such  was  the  comparative 
scarcity  of  silver  in  the  middle  years  of  the  century  that  the 
mine  owners  could  sell  it  to  the  jewelers  and  artisans  at  a 
higher  price  than  the  government  paid.  Between  1850  and 
1873,  therefore,  almost  no  silver  was  brought  to  the  mints, 
and  in  the  latter  year  Congress  quietly  passed  a  law  stopping 
the  coinage  of  silver  dollars.2  Just  at  that  moment  enormous 

1  The  most  disastrous  of  these  Indian  uprisings  was  the  resistance  of  the 
Sioux,  under  their  chief  Sitting  Bull,  to  the  orders  of  the  government  bidding 
them  leave  their  hunting  grounds  in  southern  Montana  and  move  further  west. 
The  gallant  Colonel  George  A.  Custer,  with  a  force  of  262  men,  was  caught  by 
Sitting  Bull  in  ambush,  at  the  Little  Big  Horn  River,  and  massacred  with  every 
soul  of  his  little  army,  June  25,  1876. 

2  This  law  simply  recognized  the  state  of  affairs  which  existed.     Since  the 
amount  of  silver  which  went  into  a  silver  dollar  could  be  sold  to  the  silversmiths 
for  $1.02  in  1873,  the  mine  owners  naturally  disposed  of  their  product  in  the 
market  where  it  brought  the  highest  price.  It  was  they,  and  not  the  government, 
that  discontinued  silver  coinage.  In  later  years  the  advocates  of  the  free  coinage 
of  silver  spoke  of  this  act  as  the  "crime  of  1873,"  —  as  if  the  government  had 
repudiated  silver  and  cheapened  it  by  refusing  to  coin  it. 


5 1 8      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

deposits  of  silver  were  discovered  in  our  Western  states.  One 
mine,  whose  product  in  1873  was  worth  but  $645,000,  increased 
its  output  to  $16,000,000  in  two  years.  The  famous  Comstock 
lode  in  Nevada  yielded  $42,000,000  in  three  years.  Our  total 
production  of  silver,  which  was  $1,000,000  annually  in  1861, 
rose  to  $30,000,000  in  1875.  The  market  was  flooded.  The 
price  of  silver  fell,  and  the  mine  owners  were  anxious  again  to 
sell  their  product  to  the  government  at  the  old  rate.  In  1874, 
for  the  first  time  in  a  generation,  the  silver  in  a  dollar  was  worth 
more  than  the  same  weight  of  silver  in  a  napkin  ring  or  an  um 
brella  handle.  The  mine  owners,  therefore,  clamored  for  the 
repeal  of  the  law  of  1873  and  the  resumption  of  silver  coinage. 
They  were  joined  in  their  demand  by  the  large  class  of  Western 
farmers,  who,  being  obliged  to  borrow  money  for  the  develop 
ment  of  their  farms  and  the  transportation  of  their  crops,  found 
themselves  obliged  to  pay  high  rates  of  interest  to  the  bankers 
of  the  East,  who  controlled  the  nation's  gold. 

730.  The  So  Representative  Richard  P.  Bland  of  Missouri  introduced 

Act  of  1878  into  Hayes's  first  Congress  a  bill  for  the  unlimited,  or  "  free,  " 
coinage  of  silver  at  the  old  rate  of  approximately  16  to  i.  The 
bill  was  modified  in  the  Senate  by  Allison  of  Iowa.  Instead  of 
accepting  unlimited  amounts  of  silver  presented  at  its  mints  for 
coinage,  the  government  was  to  agree,  by  the  Allison  Amend 
ment,  to  purchase  not  less  than  $2,000,000  worth  nor  more  than 
$4,000,000  worth  of  silver  a  month.  In  this  form  the  bill  passed 
both  Houses  of  Congress  in  February,  1878,  and,  although  wisely 
vetoed  by  President  Hayes,  commanded  the  necessary  two-thirds 
vote  to  override  his  veto.  By  the  Bland-Allison  Act,  then,  our  gov 
ernment  pledged  itself  to  take  from  the  mine  owners  at  least 
$24,000,000  worth  of  silver  every  year  to  coin  into  "dollars" 
which  were  worth,  in  1878,  less  than  ninety  cents  apiece.  We 
shall  see  in  a  later  chapter  some  of  the  results  of  this  policy  of 
trying,  simply  by  stamping  the  United  States  eagle  upon  coins, 
to  make  them  more  valuable  than  the  worth  of  the  metal  they 
contain. 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          519 

The  other  financial  measure  of  the  Hayes  administration  was  731.  There- 
the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  which  means  the  decision  and  specie  ^ay0^ 
promise  of  the  United  States  to  pay  all  its  obligations  in  "  specie/'  ments,  1879 
or  coin.    The  "  greenbacks,"  or  legal-tender  notes  issued  to  the 
amount  of  about  $450,000,000  during  the  Civil  War,  were  simply 
pieces  of  paper  on  which  were  printed  the  government's  prom- " 
ise  to  pay  the  bearer  the  amount  specified  when  the  United 
States  should  have  the  money.    The  intention  of  the  govern 
ment  was  to  "redeem"  (or  "retire,"  or  "cancel")  these  green 
backs  by  cash  payment,  just  as  we  should  cancel  our  "  private 
note"  handed  to  a  friend  for  a  loan  of  money  made  us  when  we 
were  in  financial  straits.   The  government  had  actually  redeemed 
about  $100,000,000  worth  of  the  greenbacks,  when  the  Western 
farmers,  from  that  same  need  of  a  currency  uncontrolled  by 
Eastern  bankers  which  impelled  them  to  demand  the  renewal 
of  silver  coinage,  demanded  that  the  government  should  not 
only  stop  redeeming  the  greenbacks  but  that  it  should  actually 
issue  many  millions  more. 

Congress  refused  to  heed  this  demand,  and  passed  a  law  in 
1875,  fixing  January  i,  1879,  as  the  date  when  the  Treasury  of 
the  United  States  would  redeem  in  coin  *  all  the  outstanding 
greenbacks.  During  the  years  1877-1878,  John  Sherman, 
Hayes's  able  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  accumulated  some 
$140,000,000  worth  of  gold  by  the  sale  of  bonds  at  home  and 
abroad ;  and  when  resumption  day  came,  so  perfect  was  the  faith 
of  the  people  in  the  credit  of  the  government  that  greenbacks 
to  the  amount  of  only  about  $135,000  were  presented  at  the 
Treasury  to  be  exchanged  for  gold.  From  that  day  to  the  present 
all  the  paper  notes  of  the  United  States  have  circulated  on  a  par 
with  silver  and  gold.  There  was  still  to  come  a  struggle  (to  be 
traced  in  a  later  chapter)  as  to  whether  gold  or  silver  should  be 
the  metal  in  which  the  government's  debts  were  to  be  paid.  But 

1  Since  the  government  practically  recognized  gold  as  the  standard  "  coin  " 
in  1875,  by  demanding  gold  in  payment  of  customs  dues  and  paying  in  gold  the 
interest  on  its  bonds,  specie  payment  was  taken  to  mean  gold  payment. 


520      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

the  danger  of  a  flood  of  cheap  paper  currency,  which  had  nearly 
swamped  the  government  in  the  critical  years  following  the 
American  Revolution,  was  past.  History  shows  no  parallel  of 
a  nation  so  rapidly  and  easily  recovering  from  a  war  debt  of 
billions  of  dollars. 

THE  PARTY  REVOLUTION  OF  1884 

732.  The  ma-       The  success  of  the  resumption  policy  and  the  rapid  recovery 
1*1"  °f  our  Pub^c  credit  were  due  primarily  neither  to  the  wisdom  of 


tne  President  nor  to  the  skill  of  Secretary  Sherman,  but  to  the 
the  Civil  war  wonderful  material  prosperity  of  the  North  and  West  during  the 
twenty  years  following  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter.  For  the  South 
the  war  meant  prostration  and  exhaustion.  Her  money  was 
gone,  her  industries  destroyed  ;  her  fields  were  trampled  by  the 
hoofs  of  war  chargers,  and  her  strong  men  were  lying  on  a  thou 
sand  battlefields.  But  for  the  North  the  war  was  a  stimulus. 
The  demands  of  the  army  for  men  were  not  large  enough  to  be 
a  drain  on  the  industrial  population,  while  the  demands  for  sup 
plies  at  the  high  prices  the  country  was  forced  in  its  extremity 
to  pay  were  sufficient  to  create  great  manufacturing  activity. 
The  high  protective  tariffs  which  Congress  passed  during  the 
war  also  contributed  largely  to  the  industrial  boom  in  home 
manufactures  ;  and  the  disbanding  of  over  a  million  soldiers  in 
1865,  which  in  any  European  country  would  have  caused  hard 
times  by  glutting  the  labor  market,  only  furnished  the  hands 
needed  to  harvest  our  immense  crops  and  turn  the  wheels  of 
our  expanding  industries. 

733.  census         Whatever  chapter  of  the  census  reports  we  open  for  the  dec- 
?nggUtheSh°W~  ade  following  the  war,  we  read  the  same  story.    Our  coal  out 

growth  of  our  put  increased  fivefold  and  our  steel  output  a  hundredfold  in  the 

productions, 

manufacture,   period  from  1865  to  1875.   The  wheat  crop  in  Dakota  alone  in 

creased  from  1000  bushels  in  1860  to  3,000,000  in  1880,  and 
the  corn  crop  in  Kansas  from  6,000,000  to  over  100,000,000 
bushels.  When  the  Civil  War  opened  we  were  producing  about 
$1,000,000  worth  of  precious  metals  annually;  twenty  years 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy 

later  the  single  state  of  Colorado  was  taking  from  its  miiu 
$1,000,000  worth  of  gold,  lead,  and  silver  per  month.   Ne\ 
which  was  a  mining  camp  of  less  than  7000  inhabitants  in  i8t 
had  grown  by  1870  into  a  state  of  the  Union  with  a  population 
of  42,000.     In  the  decade  preceding  the  war  our  manufactures 
increased  1 4  per  cent ;  in  the  decade  following  they  increased 
79  per  cent.   The  year  of  Hayes's  election  marks  the  permanent 
change  in  favor  of  the  United  States  in  the  statistics  of  foreign 
trade.    Before  1876  our  exports  had  exceeded  our  imports  in 
but  three  years  (1857,  1862,  1874)  ;  since  1876  there  have  been 
but  three  years  (1888,  1889,  1898)  in  which  our  imports  have 
exceeded  our  exports. 

The  wealth  of  the  country  grew  from  $16,000,000,000  to  734.  our 
$43,000,000,000  between  1860  and  1880;  and  the  deposits  in  ^puiatioii4 
our  savings  banks  (the  best  index  of  a  nation's  prosperity)  in 
creased  600  per  cent.  During  the  same  period  our  population 
grew  from  30, 000,000  to  50, 000,000,  while  the  liberal  homestead 
laws  and  the  development  of  the  Western  railroads  attracted 
an  unprecedented  number  of  Irish,  German,  and  Scandinavian 
immigrants  to  the  fertile  farm  lands  beyond  the  Mississippi. 
Between  1860  and  1870  Arizona,  Colorado,  Dakota,  Idaho, 
Montana,  and  Wyoming  were  organized  as  territories,  and 
Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  Nevada  were  admitted  as  states  of  the 
Union.  Edmund  Burke,  in  his  famous  "  Speech  on  Conciliation 
with  America,"  delivered  in  Parliament  in  1775,  had  exclaimed, 
"  Such  is  the  strength  with  which  population  shoots  in  that  part 
of  the  world  that,  state  the  numbers  as  high  as  we  will,  while 
the  dispute  continues  the  exaggeration  ends."  It  seemed  in 
1875  as  though  the  orator's  enthusiastic  language  of  a  century 
earlier  were  fulfilled  in  sober  fact. 

Now  the  natural  tendency  of  parties  in  power  during  periods  735.  The  sit- 
of  prosperity  is  to  attribute  that  prosperity  entirely  to  their  own  Republican116 
wise  management  of  the  country's  politics ;  and  they  have  little  Party>  l88° 
difficulty  in  persuading  large  numbers  of  their  fellow  country 
men  of  the  truth  of  their  claims.    It  was  with  confidence,  then, 


522       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

that  the  Republican  party,  in  the  midst  of  an  era  of  wonderful 
national  prosperity,  entered  on   the    presidential  campaign  of 
1880.    No  President  ever  deserved  a  second  term  more  than 
Hayes.    But  the  shadow  cast  on  his  title  in  1876,  combined 
with  his  uncompromising  independence  of  the  leaders  of  the 
party,  and  his  failure,  through  a  certain  aloofness  of  manner,  to 
appeal  to  the  popular  imagination,  made  his  nomination  in  1880 
out  of  the  question.    General  Grant  had  just  returned  from  a 
world-circling  tour  in  which  he  had  been  received  with  royal 
honors  by  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  and  Asia.    A  branch  of  the 
Republican  party,  called  the  "  stalwarts,"  l  led  by  Senator  Ros- 
coe  Conkling  of  New  York,  boomed  Grant  for  a  third  term, 
chiefly  with  the  hope  of  reestablishing  under  the  cover  of  his 
popularity  the  rule  of  the  Republican  machine,  which  had  been 
somewhat  damaged  by  President  Hayes.    Grant's  chief  rivals  in 
the  convention  were  Senator  James  G.  Elaine  of  Maine  and 
Hayes's  able  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  John  Sherman  of  Ohio. 
736.  james          After  the  convention  had  balloted  thirty-five  times  without 
victorious        giving  the  necessary  majority  vote  to  either  Grant  or  Elaine, 
ocrattc^Sd  the  Wisconsin  delegation  led  a  "  stampede  "  to  General  James 
south "  in  the  A.  Garfield 2  of  Ohio,  who  had  been  sent  to  the  convention  to 
1880  work  in  the  interests  of  Sherman.    Chester  A.  Arthur  of  New 

York,  a  "  stalwart,"  was  nominated  for  Vice  President  to  ap 
pease  the  Conkling  faction.  The  Democrats  nominated  General 
Winfield  S.  Hancock,  the  hero  of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg. 

Garfield  was  elected  by  214  votes  to  155,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  Republicans  regained  the  majority  in  the  House  of 

1  The  "  stalwarts,"  in  opposition  to  the  reforming  "  half-breeds,"  stood  for 
uncompromising  partisan  rule,  for  a  high  protective  tariff,  for  distribution  of 
offices  as  spoils  of  political  victory,  for  the  assessment  of  officeholders  for  party 
contributions,  and  for  the  continued  use  of  federal  troops  to  coerce  the  Southern 
states  and  of  federal  inspectors  to  guard  the  polling  places. 

2  Garfield  was  one  of  the  best  examples  of  our  self-made  men  of  the  West. 
He  had  worked  his  way  up  from  the  towpath  to  a  college  presidency,  and  then 
to  a  seat  in  the  state  senate  of  Ohio.  He  had  distinguished  himself  for  gallant 
conduct  in  the  famous  division  of  General  Thomas  at  Chickamauga.   In  the 
winter  of  1863  he  had  entered  Congress,  where  he  served,  first  in  the  House 
and  then  in  the  Senate,  until  his  election  to  the  presidency  in  1880. 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          523 

Representatives,  which  they  had  lost  in  1874.  It  was  the  first 
presidential  election  since  1860  in  which  all  the  states  of  the 
Union  took  part,  with  the  opportunity  of  expressing  freely  their 
choice ;  for  even  after  the  Civil  War  was  over  and  the  states 
of  the  secession  were  nominally  restored  to  their  places  in  the 
Union,  the  presence  of  federal  troops  at  the  polls  in  the  recon 
structed  states  made  a  fair  election  impossible  (see  p.  496,  note). 
The  South,  embittered  against  the  Republican  party  for  its 
harsh  policy  of  Reconstruction,  cast  a  solid  Democratic  vote, 
—  even  though  the  candidate  of  that  party  was  the  victor  of 

Gettysburg ;  and  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  thereafter  the  "solid  South" 
was  found  in  the  Democratic  column 
at  every  presidential  election.1 

The   choice  of    Garfield  was  a  737.  Garfield 
bitter  disappointment  to    the  ma- 


chine  politicians.    Though  a  strict  warts  "led  by 
Republican,  the  new  President  elect 
belonged  to  that  reform  wjng  of  the 
party  which  the  "  stalwarts  "  con 
temptuously   called   "  half-breeds." 

Even    before  his   inauguration  he 
James  A.  Garfield  . 

showed  such  independence  of  the 

"stalwart"  leaders  in  his  selections  for  cabinet  positions  and  high 
federal  offices  that  the  party  was  hopelessly  split.  At  the  ear 
nest  request  of  Grant,  Conkling  had  taken  the  stump  in  the 
campaign  and  contributed  not  a  little  to  Garfield's  election.  Yet 
Garfield  utterly  ignored  him  in  his  appointments  to  office.  He 
made  Elaine,  Conkling's  dearest  enemy,  Secretary  of  State ;  he 
assigned  only  a  minor  cabinet  office  to  the  state  of  New  York ; 
and  for  the  important  post  of  collector  of  the  port  of  New  York 
he  named  an  uncompromising  enemy  of  Conkling  and  the  ma 
chine.  Stung  by  this  "  ingratitude,"  Conkling  and  his  colleague 

1  In  1904  and  1908  Roosevelt  and  Taft  both  received  electoral  votes  and 
carried  states  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  The  Republicans  hail  this  as 
the  breaking  up  of  the  "  solid  South." 


524      History  of  the  Reprtblic  since  the  Civil  Wat 

from  New  York,  Thomas  C.  Platt,  resigned  their  seats  in  the 
United  States  Senate.1 

738.  The  Factional  spirit  ran  high  and  culminated  in  a  dastardly  crime, 
assassination  J 

of  Garfieid,      A  few  weeks  after  the  resignation  of  the  New  York  senators, 

President  Garfieid,  accompanied  by  Secretary  Elaine,  entered 
the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  station  at  Washington  to  take  a  train 
to  visit  his  family  on  the  New  Jersey  shore.  Charles  Guiteau,  a 
"  stalwart "  fanatic,  crept  up  to  the  President  and  fired  a  bullet 
into  his  back.  He  did  it,  he  said,  to  rid  the  country  of  a 
"traitor"  and  seat  the  "stalwart"  Arthur  in  the  presidential 
chair.  After  lingering  through  the  hot  weeks  of  summer  in 
dreadful  agony,  President  Garfieid  died  at  Elberon,  New  Jersey, 
September  19,  1881. 

739.  Dis-  Guiteau's  pistol  shot  roused  the  whole  country  to  the  dis- 
of  the  civil      graceful  state  of  the  public  service.    Political  offices  were  the 

prize  of  intriguing  politicians  and  wirepullers.  Crowds  of 
anxious  placemen  thronged  the  capital  for  weeks  after  the  in 
auguration,  pestering  the  President  for  appointments  in  post 
offices,  pustomhouses,  and  federal  courts.  Republicans  and 
Democrats  brought  against  each  other  the  charge  of  "  insatiable 
lust  for  office,"  —  and  both  were  right.  One  politician,  when 
taken  to  task  for  not  working  in  his  office,  cynically  replied, 
"  Work  !  why,  I  worked  to  get  here  !  "  "  Voluntary  contribu 
tions,"  or  assessments,  equal  to  2  per  cent  of  their  salary, 
were  levied  on  officeholders  for  campaign  expenses,  and  the 
funds  so  raised  were  used  shamelessly  to  buy  votes.2 

1  The  quarrel  between  Conkling  and  Garfieid  led  to  a  most  dramatic  scene. 
Conkling,  accompanied  by  Platt  and  Arthur,  called  on  Garfieid  at  his  room  in 
the  Riggs  House  shortly  after  his  arrival   in  Washington,  and  for  two  hours 
stormed  up  and  down  the  floor,  pouring  out  the  vials  of  his  sarcastic  wrath  upon 
the  President  elect,  who  sat  unmoved  on  the  edge  of  his  bed.    Neither  Platt  nor 
Conkling  was  returned  to  the  Senate  by  the  legislature  of  New  York.   The  latter 
retired  from  politics,  and  a  few  years  later  lost  his  life  through  exposure  in  the 
great  blizzard  which  swept  New  York  City  in  1888.   Platt  returned  to  the  Senate 
in  1897,  where  he  served  two  terms,  being  replaced  by  Elihu  Root  in  1909. 

2  Even  Vice  President  Arthur,  after  the  election  of  1880,  referred  in  a  joking 
way  to  the  large  expenditure  of  the  Republican  campaign  committee.   The  elec 
tion  had  been  won,  he  said,  by  a  "  liberal  use  of  soap." 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          525 

At   the  very   close  of   the    Civil  War   thoughtful  men   had  740.  The 

..         ..  v       i  •  i      i      i  -i    j    Civil  Service 

attacked  this    corrupt      spoils  system,"   which   had   prevailed  commission, 

since  Jackson's  day.  For  seven  years  in  succession  Congress-  l87i-*875 
man  Jenckes  of  Rhode  Island  introduced  a  bill  into  the  House 
"  for  the  regulation  of  the  civil  service/'1  until  in  March,  1871, 
a  law  was  passed  authorizing  the  President  to  appoint  a  com 
mission  to  ascertain  the  fitness  of  candidates  for  office  in  the 
federal  civil  service  and  prescribe  rules  for  their  conduct.  The 
commission  advocated  what  was  later  called  by  Theodore  Roose 
velt  "  the  merit  system,"  that  is,  the  selection  of  candidates 
by  competitive  examination  rather  than  their  appointment  for 
party  services,  on  the  sound  principle  that  a  man's  political 
opinions  have  little  to  do  with  his  capacity  for  a  clerkship.  The 
low  tone  of  public  morality  prevailing  during  Grant's  adminis 
tration  discouraged  reform  of  the  civil  service,  and  in  1875 
Congress  discontinued  the  commission  by  failing  to  make 
any  appropriation  for  its  labors.  President  Hayes  encouraged 
the  merit  system  wherever  he  could.  During  his  administration 
civil  service  leagues  were  formed  in  over  thirty  states  of  the 
Union,  and  the  movement  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the 
National  Civil  Service  League  at  Newport  in  1880. 

Under  pressure  from  this  national  league  a  bill  was  intro-  741.  The 
duced  into  the  Senate  by  George  Pendleton  of  Ohio  in  1882,  3i°£jtonAct 
which  was  passed  in  both  Houses  of  Congress  by  large  majori 
ties  and  signed  by  President  Arthur  in  January,  1883.  The 
Pendleton  Act  provided  for  the  reestablishment  of  the  Civil  Serv 
ice  Commission,  and  for  the  extension  of  the  "  merit  system  " 
as  far  as  the  President  saw  fit.  It  forbade  the  assessment  of 
federal  servants  for  campaign  purposes,  or  the  discharge  of  a 
competent  clerk  on  account  of  his  political  opinions.  Under  its 
wise  provisions  about  14,000  officials  in  the  post  office  and 
customs  departments  were  immediately  protected  against  the 
partisan  revenge  of  victorious  political  bosses. 

1  By  the  civil  service  is  meant  the  great  number  of  clerks  and  assistants  in 
the  executive  department  of  the  government. 


526      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


tion 


743.  The  ^ 
Republicans 


742.  The  The  influence  of  politicians  who  have  been  so  corrupt  as  to  p  re- 

progress  of 

civil  service     fer  the  triumph  of  their  party  to  the  good  of  the  country,  or  so 

bigoted  as  to  believe  that  the  good  of  the  country  depended  on 
the  triumph  of  their  party,  has  been  from  the  first  exerted 
against  the  extension  of  civil  service  reform.  In  Hayes's  day 
they  called  it  the  "  snivel  service,"  and  ridiculed  its  champions 
as  "  goody-goodies  "  who  thought  themselves  holier  than  their 
political  neighbors.  "  Noisy,  not  numerous  ;  pharisaical,  not 
practical;  pretentious,  not  powerful,"  was  James  G.  Elaine's 
rhetorical  condemnation  of  the  reformers.  Still,  the  cause  has 
progressed  in  the  last  generation,  until  now  some  85,000  offices, 
or  about  three  fourths  of  the  minor  places  in  the  federal  civil 
service,  are  classified  under  the  rules  of  the  commission,  to  be 
filled  on  the  test  of  merit  and  held  on  tenure  secure  against  the 
jealousies  and  animosities  of  political  bosses. 

The  passage  of  the  Pendleton  Act  was  a  tardy  and  rather 
desperate  concession  to  the  reform  idea  on  the  part  of  the 
thei^uprem-  "  stalwart  "  Republicans.  For  ten  years  they  had  seen  a  reform 
acy,  1882-1883  movement  going  on  in  their  ranks,  and  had  met  that  move 
ment  with  indifference  or  scorn.  Their  policy  of  keeping  the 
negro  vote  in  the  Southern  states  by  means  of  armed  forces  at 
the  polling  places  had  failed  ;  their  corrupt  administration  of 
high  offices  had  been  exposed  ;  their  complicity  in  fraudulent 
land  companies  and  railroad  transactions  had  been  detected  ; 
their  high  tariff  was  enriching  the  few  protected  manufactures 
at  the  expense  of  the  many  consumers,  and  was  piling  up  in  the 
Treasury  of  the  United  States  a  surplus  of  money  which  ought 
to  have  been  circulating  in  business  among  the  people.  The 
boom  in  trade  which  had  followed  the  panic  of  1873  was  begin 
ning  to  slacken  in  1881,  and  "hard  times"  came  on.  In  the 
congressional  elections  of  1882  the  Republican  majority  of  19 
in  the  House  was  changed  to  a  Democratic  majority  of  82,  and 
the  Republican  party,  thoroughly  alarmed,  began  to  consider 
how  it  should  save  its  supremacy  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  in 
the  approaching  presidential  election  of  1884. 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          $27 


By  far  the  most  prominent  man  in  the  Republican  party  was 
James  G.  Elaine,  whom  we  have  already  met  as  candidate  for 
the  presidential  nomination  in  1876  and  1880.  As  Secretary  of 
State  for  a  few  months  in  Garfield's  cabinet  Elaine  had  height 
ened  his  immense  popularity  with  that  large  portion  of  our 
population  which  loves  a  spectacular  display  of  energy  in  its 
public  servants.  He  had  intervened  in  a  quarrel  between  Peru 
and  Chile  with  language  which  implied  the  right  of  the  United 
States  to  settle  the  disputes  of  her 
weaker  sister  republics  of  South 
and  Central  America.  He  had 
negotiated  (but  failed  to  persuade 
the  Senate  to  ratify)  a  number  of 
commercial  treaties  with  these  re 
publics  on  the  principle  of  "  reci 
procity,"  or  the  admission  into  each 
country,  free  of  duty,  of  goods  which 
were  not  produced  in  that  country. 
He  had  assumed  a  lofty  tone  toward 
Great  Britain  in  a  controversy  over 
the  control  of  a  canal  to  be  cut 
through  the  Isthmus'  of  Panama. 
His  foreign  dispatches  were  written 

in  the  nervous,  confident,  assertive  style  of  the  editorial  page 
of  a  popular  journal  rather  than  in  the  guarded,  deliberative 
language  of  diplomacy. 

But  in  spite  of  his  impetuous  assertions  of  patriotism  and 
his  great  personal  "  magnetism,"  the  reproach  of  shady  dealings 
with  Western  railroads  and  land  schemes,  which  had  prevented 
his  nomination  in  1876,  still  clung  to  his  name.  And  as  the 
time  for  the  national  convention  of  1884  drew  near,  those 
same  reformers  whom  he  had  sarcastically  dubbed  "  the  unco 
guid,"1  "pharisaical,  not  practical,"  began  the  movement  to 
prevent  his  nomination  at  Chicago.  They  were  ridiculed  in  the 

1  A  Scotch  phrase  meaning  "  goody-goody." 


744.  James 
G.  Elaine: 
his  record  as 
Secretary  of 
State  in  1881 


James  G.  Elaine 


745.  The 
Mugwump 
opposition 
to  Elaine, 
1884 


528       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

New  York  Sun  as  "  Mugwumps  "  —  an  Indian  name  meaning 
"  big  chief  "  —  because  they  affected  superiority  to  the  rest  of 
their  party.  When  Elaine's  great  popularity  secured  him  the 
nomination  over  his  rivals,  President  Arthur  and  Senator  Ed 
munds  of  Vermont  (the  candidate  of  the  New  England  reform 
ers),  the  Mugwumps,  or  Independent  Republicans,  organized 
a  league  at  New  York  under  the  leadership  of  George  William 
Curtis,  the  chairman  of  the  original  Civil  Service  Commission 
of  1871.  They  protested  against  the  nomination  of  a  man 
"  wholly  disqualified  for  the  high  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States  "  by  his  alliance  with  the  most  unscrupulous  men 
of  the  party  and  his  stubborn  opposition  to  all  reform ;  and 
they  called  upon  the  Democrats  to  nominate  an  honest,  inde 
pendent  candidate  for  whom  truly  public-spirited  citizens  could 
conscientiously  vote.1 

746.  Grover         The  Democrats  responded  to  this  invitation  by  nominating 

Cleveland, the    „  ™       i      j  r  XT        ^r     i       ^ 

Democratic      Grover  Cleveland,  governor  of  New  York.    Cleveland  was  the 

son  of  a  poor  Presbyterian  minister.  He  had  grown  up  in 
western  New  York,  supporting  himself  as  best  he  could  by 
tending  a  country  store,  teaching  in  an  asylum  for  the  blind, 
and  acting  as  clerk  in  a  lawyer's  office  in  Buffalo.  Here  he 
studied  law,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and,  'entering  local  politics, 
served  as  assistant  district  attorney,  then  as  sheriff  of  Erie 
County,  and  in  1881,  in  his  forty-fifth  year,  was  elected  mayor 
of  Buffalo  on  an  independent  ticket.  His  administration  of  the 
office  was  so  honest,  able,  and  courageous  that  it  brought  him 
the  Democratic  nomination  for  the  governorship  of  New  York 
the  next  year.  He  carried  the  state  by  the  unprecedented  plu 
rality  of  192,000  votes.  In  the  governor's  chair  he  showed 
the  same  fearless  independence  which  had  won  him  the  name 
of  the  "  veto  mayor "  in  Buffalo.  He  was,  like  Lincoln  and 
Garfield,  a  "  self-made  man." 

1  Several  influential  Republican  newspapers,  like  the  New  York  Times  and 
the  Springfield  Republican,  advised  voting  for  Cleveland.  "  The  defeat  of 
Elaine,"  wrote  one,  "  will  be  the  salvation  of  the  Republican  party." 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          529 

By  nature  and  training  he  was  the  direct  antithesis  of  his  747.  cieve- 
rival  for  the  presidential  election.    Elaine  was  brilliant,  genial,  BiaineDd 
daring,  and  unreliable ;  Cleveland  was  deliberate,  patient,  plod-  contrasted 
ding,  but  firm  as  a  rock  when  he  had  once  reached  his  decision. 
Elaine,  after  a  college  training  and  ten  years'  experience  as 
teacher  and  journalist,  had  entered  the  Maine  legislature,  and 
from  there  had  gone  to  the  national  Congress,  where  he  served 
fourteen  years  in  the  House  of  Representatives  (as  its  Speaker 
from  1869  to  1875)  and  four  years  in  the  Senate,  whence  he 
was  called  by  Garfield  in  1881  to  the  first  place  in  the  cabinet. 
Cleveland  had  had  absolutely  no  experience  in  national  affairs, 
had  never  been  a  member  of  a  legislative  body  of  any  sort,  and 
had  only  the  political  training  obtained  in  the  executive  offices 
of  sheriff,  mayor,  and  governor. 

The  platform  on  which  Cleveland  ran  is  perhaps  the  most  748.  The 
scathing  political  document  in  our  history.    "The  Republican  jSj?^*^ 

party,"  it  reads,  "  is  an  organization  for  enriching  those  who  l884>  and 

3 '    .  Cleveland's 

control  its  machinery.  ...  It  has  steadily  decayed  in  moral  char-  election 

acter  and  political  capacity.  ...  Its  platform  promises  are  now 
only  a  list  of  its  past  failures.  .  .  .  Honeycombed  with  corrup 
tion,  outbreaking  exposures  no  longer  shock  its  moral  sense. .  .  . 
The  frauds  and  jobbery  which  have  been  brought  to  light  in 
every  department  of  the  government  are  sufficient  to  have 
called  for  a  reform  within  the  Republican  party ;  yet  those  in 
authority  .  .  .  have  placed  in  nomination  a  ticket  against  which 
the  independent  portion  of  the  party  are  in  open  revolt."  The 
campaign  was  the  most  bitterly  fought  in  all  our  history,  and 
the  most  disgraceful.  Being  unable  to  revive  the  issues  of  the 
Civil  War  for  a  generation  of  voters  who  had  grown  up  since 
the  surrender  at  Appomattox,  and  having  no  ground  for  criticism 
of  Cleveland's  public  record  in  the  state  of  New  York,  the 
Republican  campaign  orators  attacked  the  private  life  of  the 
Democratic  candidate,  ransacking  every  page  of  it  for  occasion 
of  slander  or  traces  of  scandal.  The  Democrats  in  turn  revived 
the  whole  miserable  story  of  Elaine's  railroad  bonds  and  the 


5  30      History  of  the  Repiiblic  since  the  Civil  War 

famous  Mulligan  letters.1  Cleveland  was  called  a  coward  be 
cause  he  did  not  go  to  the  war ;  Elaine  was  called  "  un- 
American  "  because  his  mother  was  a  Roman  Catholic.  The 
entire  campaign,  as  the  Nation  remarked,  was  conducted  in  a 
spirit  and  a  language  "  worthy  of  the  stairways  of  a  tenement 
house."  It  was  clear  on  election  night  that  the  result  hung  on 
the  state  of  New  York,  but  several  days  of  intense  excitement 
passed  before  it  was  definitely  known  that  Cleveland  had 
carried  the  state  by  the  slim  majority  of  1149  votes  out  of 
i, 167, 169. 2 

749.  signifi-  Cleveland's  election  was  the  first  Democratic  victory  since 
the°party  the  campaign  of  1856.  For  the  quarter  of  a  century  since  the 
Confederate  mortars  had  opened  their  fire  on  Fort  Sumter  the 
Republicans  had  held  control  of  the  executive  branch  of  our 
government,  with  the  tens  of  thousands  of  offices  in  its  patron 
age.  For  only  'one  term  of  Congress  during  that  period  had 
the  Republicans  lost  control  of  the  Senate,  and  they  had  a 
majority  in  the  House  in  all  but  four  terms.  This  long  tenure 
of  power  was  the  reward  the  country  paid  the  Republican  party 
for  its  services  in  preserving  the  Union  and  abolishing  the  curse 
of  slavery.  Those  services  were  great,  but  the  uses  to  which 
the  reward  was  put  were  unworthy.  Considerations  of  public 
welfare,  even  of  common  honesty,  were  set  aside  for  party  ends. 

1  These  were  letters  which  Elaine  had  written  to  the  railroad  manipulators, 
and  which  he  himself  thought  so  damaging  to  his  chances  for  nomination  that 
he  had  "borrowed"  them  from  Mulligan  and  refused  to  return  them  —  though 
he  later  in  a  very  dramatic  scene  read  them  to  the  House,  "  inviting  the  confi 
dence  of  44,000,000  of  his  fellow  citizens."    The  sharp-tongued  Conkling,  being 
invited  to  take  the  stump  for  Blaine  in  1884,  replied,  "  Thank  you,  I  don't  engage 
in  criminal  practice." 

2  The  vote  throughout  the  country  (except  in  the  "  solid  South  ")  was  very 
close,  Cleveland  receiving  4,874,986  to  4,851,981  for  Blaine.    Many  people  believe 
that  Blaine  lost  New  York,  and  consequently  the  election,  on  account  of  a  remark 
made  near  the  end  of  the  campaign  by  a  certain  Dr.  Burchard  at  a  meeting  of 
the  ministers  of  New  York,  which  had  been  called  to  congratulate  Blaine  and 
wish  him  success.    On  that  occasion  Dr.  Burchard  referred  to  the  Democratic 
party  as  the  party  of  "  Rum,  Romanism,  and  Rebellion."   The  insulting  phrase, 
which  implied  that  Roman  Catholics  were  in  a  class  with  drunkards,  and  that 
both  were  in  sympathy  with  "  rebels,"  was  taken  up  as  a  campaign  cry  all  over 
the  land,  and  doubtless  cost  Blaine  thousands  of  votes. 


Twenty  Years  of  Republican  Supremacy          531 

Confident  in  their  majorities,  the  Republican  leaders  defied  the 
growing  demand  for  reform  in  the  conduct  of  the  government 
offices.  They  sneered  at  the  civil  service  rules.  They  tried,  by 
waving  the  "  bloody  shirt,"  to  keep  alive  the  savage  desire  to 
coerce  the  South.  They  hampered  and  hectored  their  "  reform 
President,"  Hayes.  They  cynically  reduced  the  tariff  3  per 
cent  (by  an  act  of  1883),  when  their  own  expert  commission 
recommended  a  reduction  of  20  per  cent.  They  refused  to  take 
warning  by  the  gathering  of  the  reform  forces  in  1872.  In  the 
opinion  of  half  the  country  they  had  "  stolen  "  the  election  of 
1876,  and  were  generally  accused  of  having  "bought"  the 
election  of  1880.  Consequently,  in  1884,  they  were  deposed 
from  their  long  supremacy  by  the  votes  of  the  reformers  in 
their  own  party,  to  whose  entreaties  and  remonstrances  they 
had  turned  a  deaf  ear  for  more  than  a  decade. 

REFERENCES 

The  New  Industrial  Age  :  CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT,  Industrial  Evolution 
of  the  United  States,  chaps,  xiii,  xiv,  xxii,  xxiii ;  E.  L.  BOGART,  Economic 
History  of  the  United  States,  chaps,  xx,  xxii,  xxv  ;  N.  S.  SHALER  (ed.),  The 
United  States,  Vol.  I,  chap,  vii ;  Vol.  II,  chaps,  i,  ii,  xii;  E.  E.  SPARKS, 
National  Development  (American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  i-v,  xviii ;  HUGH 
McCuLLOCH,  Men  and  Measures  of  a  Half  Century,  chap,  xxxiii; 
D.  A.  WELLS,  Recent  Economic  Changes,  chap,  ii;  KATHARINE  COMAN, 
Industrial  History  of  the  United  States,  chap.  viii. 

The  Republican  Machine  :  WRIGHT,  chaps,  xxiv-xxvi ;  BOGART,  chaps, 
xxiv,  xxvii,  xxviii ;  SPARKS,  chaps,  vii-ix ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History 
told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  162,  163,  165,  168,  169;  E.  B. 
ANDREWS,  The  United  States  in  our  own  Time,  chaps,  ix-xiv ;  JOHN 
SHERMAN,  Recollections  of  Forty  Years,  chaps,  xxii-xxvii,  xxix-xxxvii ; 
ALBERT  SHAW,  Political  Problems  of  American  Development,  chaps,  vi- 
viii;  D.  R.  DEWEY,  Financial  History  of  the  United  States,  chaps,  xiv- 
xvii ;  A.  D.  NOYES,  Forty  Years  of  American  Finance,  chaps,  ii,  iii ;  JOHN 
MITCHELL,  Organized  Labor,  chap,  viii ;  WOODROW  WILSON,  History 
of  the  American  People,  Vol.  V,  chap.  ii. 

The  Party  Revolution  of  1884  :  HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  160,  161  ;  SPARKS, 
chaps,  x-xii,  xvi-xix ;  DEWEY,  chap,  xviii ;  SHERMAN,  chaps,  xl-xlvii ; 
ANDREWS,  chap,  xvi ;  EDWARD  STANWOOD,  History  of  the  Presidency, 


532       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

chaps,  xxvi,  xxvii ;  GEORGE  W.  CURTIS,  Orations  and  Addresses,  Vol.  II ; 
CARL  R.  FISH,  The  Civil  Service  and  the  Patronage ;  JAMES  BRYCE,  The 
American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  II,  chap.  Ixv ;  Lives  of  Grant  by  HAMLIN 
GARLAND,  W.  C.  CHURCH,  and  ADAM  BADEAU  ;  of  Elaine,  by  "  GAIL 
HAMILTON  "  and  EDWARD  STANWOOD  ;  of  Garfield,  by  J.  A.  GILMORE. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  The  Homestead  Acts  :  J.  N.  LARNED,  History  for  Ready  Reference 
and  Topical  Reading,  Vol.  V,  pp.  3463-3464;  S.  SATO,  The  Land  Ques 
tion  in  the  United  States  (Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies, 'N®\.  IV, 
pp.  411-427) ;  THOMAS  DONALDSON,  The  Public  Domain,  pp.  332-356; 
J.  B.  SANBORN,  Some  Political  Aspects  of  Homestea^  Legislation  (American 
Historical  Review,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  19-37) ;  A.  B.  HART,  The  Land  Policy 
of  the  United  States  (in  Essays  on  Practical  Government}. 

2.  The  "  Crime  of  1873"  :  J.  L.  LAUGHLIN,  History  of  Bimetallism  in 
the  United  States,  pp.  92-105  ;  D.  K.  WATSON,  History  of  American  Coin 
age,  pp.  135-160;   HORACE  WHITE,  Money  and  Banking,  pp.  213-223; 
J.  T.  CLEARY,   The  Crime  of  1873  (Sound  Currency,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  13); 
SHERMAN,  pp.  459-470 ;  DEWEY,  pp.  403-410. 

3.  The  Custer  Massacre:   ANDREWS,  pp.  169-193;  F.  WHITTAKER, 
Complete  Life  of  George  A.  Custer,  Book  VIII,  chaps,  iv-v;  ELIZABETH 
B.  CUSTER,  General  Custer  at  the  Battle  of  Little  Big  Horn. 

4.  The  Granger  Movement:  ANDREWS,  pp.  281-284;  A.  T.  HADLEY, 
Railroad   Transportation,  its   History  and  Laws,   pp.  129—139;    E.  W. 
MARTIN,  History  of  the  Grange  Movement ;  C.  F.  ADAMS,  JR.,  The  Granger 
Movement  (North  American  Review,  Vol.  CXX,  pp.  394-410);   C.  W. 
PREISEN,  Outcome  of  the  Granger  Movement  (Popiilar  Science  Monthly, 
Vol.  XXXII,  pp.  201-214). 

5.  Civil  Service  Reform  :  FISH,  pp.  209-245  ;  ANDREWS,  pp.  230-235, 
336-342  ;    E.   BIE   K.    FOLTZ,    The  Federal    Civil  Service,   pp.  38-82 ; 
SPARKS,  pp.  182-201 ;  HART,  Vol.  IV,  No.  199 ;  DORMAN  B.  EATON 
(articles  in  J.  J.  LALOR'S  Cyclopedia  of  Political  Science,  Vol.  I,  pp.  153, 
472,  478 ;  Vol.  II,  p.  640 ;  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  19,  139,  565,  782,  895). 

6.  The  Movement  for  a  Third  Term  for  Grant :    SPARKS,  pp.  165-172 ; 
STANWOOD,  James   G.  Blaine,  pp.  225-231;   ANDREWS,  pp.  307-312; 
SHERMAN,  pp.  766-774  ;  BADEAU,  Grant  in  Peace,  pp.  319  ff. ;  series  of 
articles  for  and  against  a  third  term,  by  G.  S.  BOUTWELL,  J.  S.  BLACK, 
E.  W.   SLAUGHTER,   and  TIMOTHY  HOWE  (North  American  Review, 
Vol.  CXXX,  pp.  116,  197,  224,  370). 


CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  CLEVELAND  DEMOCRACY 

A  PEOPLE'S  PRESIDENT 

In  a  book  of  essays  called  "  Presidential  Problems,"  written  750.  cieve- 
r        i  •          •  f  i  v     vr      -nr      land's  idea 

in  1904,  some  years  after  his  retirement  trom  public  lite,  Mr.  Of  the 

Cleveland  spoke  of  the  presidency  as  "  preeminently  the  people's  e0ft™ilve 
office."  His  administration  of  that  office  during  the  two  terms 
1885-1889  and  1893-1897  proved  the  sincerity  of  his  re 
mark,  for  he  acted  always  as  the  head  of  the  nation,  even  when 
such  action  threatened  to  cost  him  the  leadership  of  his  -party. 
He  did  not  believe  that  the  people,  in  choosing  a  President,  sim 
ply  designated  a  man  to  sit  at  his  desk  in  the  White  House  and 
sign  the  bills  which  Congress  passed  up  to  him,  and  make  the 
appointments  to  office  which  the  managers  of  the  party  dic 
tated  to  him.  He  belonged  to  the  class  of  Presidents  who  have 
interpreted  "  leading "  their  party  to  mean  educating  their 
j  party.  Cleveland's  exalted  view  of  the  independence  and  re- 
i  sponsibility  of  the  President  was  partly  a  result  of  his  direct- 
\  ness  and  decision  of  character,  and  partly  due  to  the  fact  that 
his  political  career  had  been  confined  entirely  to  the  executive 
branch  of  service. 

It  was  inevitable  that  President  Cleveland  should  come  into  751.  cieve- 
j  conflict  with  Congress.   The  Democratic  House  which  had  been  ^ 
chosen  in  the  election  of  1884  expected  him  to  sweep  the  Re-  Consress 
publicans  out  of  all  the  offices  which  they  had  held  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century ;  while  the  Republican  Senate,  whose  consent  was 
necessary  for  all  the  President's  appointments,  reminded  him 
that  the  Mugwump  vote,  which  had  elected  him,  had  been  cast 
by  Republicans  who  believed  him  an  unpartisan  reformer  of 

533 


534      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

the  tariff  and  the  civil  service.  When  the  President  chose  two 
cabinet  members 1  from  states  of  the  lower  South,  and  divided 
the  chief  foreign  missions  and  consulships  between  the  North 
and  the  South,  as  a  pledge  of  the  cessation  of  sectional  bitter 
ness,  he  was  assailed  for  intrusting  the  offices  of  government 
to  "  ex-Confederate  brigadier  generals."  When  his  sense  of 
justice  led  him  to  remove  several  federal  officers,  especially 
postmasters,  who  had  used  their  office  unblushingly  for  cam 
paign  purposes,  he  was  accused  of  going  back  on  his  public 
profession  of  devotion  to  the  principles  of  civil  service  reform.2 
752.  The  The  Senate  made  a  direct  issue  with  the  President  early  in 
Office' Act  l886  over  the  removal  of  District  Attorney  Dustin  of  Alabama. 
Invoking  the  Tenure  of  Office  Act  of  1867  (p.  490),  the  Senate 
refused  to  confirm  the  nomination  of  Dustin's  successor,  and 
called  on  the  President,  through  Attorney-General  Garland,  for 
the  papers  relating  to  the  dismissal.  Cleveland,  believing  that 
the  Tenure  of  Office  Act  was  unconstitutional,  replied  that  his 
power  of  removal  was  absolute,  refused  to  furnish  the  papers, 
and  added  that  "  no  threat  of  the  Senate  was  sufficient  to  dis 
courage  or  deter "  him  from  following  the  course  which  he 
believed  led  to  "  government  for  the  people."  A  bitter  fight 
followed  in  the  Senate,  during  which  Cleveland  was  roundly 
abused  and  his  Attorney-General  formally  censured.  But  the 
President  won,  and  had  the  satisfaction  before  the  year  closed 
of  seeing  the  unjust  Tenure  of  Office  Act  repealed  by  Congress 
(December  17,  1886). 

1  These  were  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar  of  Mississippi,  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  and 
Augustus  H.  Garland  of  Arkansas,  Attorney-General.  Thomas  F.  Bayard,  Cleve 
land's  first  Secretary  of  State,  also  came  from  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line, 
from  the  loyal  slave  state  of  Delaware. 

2  These  pledges  are  contained  in  Cleveland's  letter  of  acceptance  of  the  Dem 
ocratic  nomination  for  the  presidency  (August,  1884)  ;  also  in  a  private  letter  to 
George  William  Curtis  a  few  months  later.   The  party  pressure  brought  to  bear 
on  Cleveland  was  evidently  greater  than  he  could  resist,  for  within  two  years  all 
the  Republican  federal  surveyors,  naval  officers,  and  territorial  governors  had 
been  removed,  and  about  90  per  cent  of  the  collectors  of  customs,  the  internal 
revenue  collectors,  the  district  attorneys,  and  the  territorial  judges.   Practically 
all  the  foreign  ministers  were  changed  also. 


GROVER    CLEVELAND 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  535 

The  independent  position  of  the  executive  was  still  further  753.  The 

,   nn^\   i        i  r  j.i       Presidential 

strengthened  in  the  same  year  (1886)  by  the  passage  or  the  succession 

Presidential  Succession  Act.  According  to  the  law  hitherto  ex-  Act  of  l886 
isting,  in  the  event  of  the  death  or  disability  of  both  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  Vice  President  the  succession  went  to  the  Speaker 
of  the  House  and  then  to  the  president//*?  tempore  of  the  Senate. 
But  it  frequently  happened  that  one,  or  even  both,  of  these  men 
belonged  to  the  opposite  party  from  the  President's.  -  It  seemed 
unjust  that  the  office  of  President  should  not,  in  spite  of  all  ac 
cidents,  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  party  successful  at  the  polls. 
Vice  President  Hendricks  had  died  in  November,  1885,  and  the 
Senate  had  chosen  John  Sherman  as  president  pro  tempore,  thus 
putting  an  ardent  Republican  in  line  for  the  presidency  in  case 
of  Cleveland's  death  or  disability.  The  Presidential  Succession 
Act  remedied  this  injustice  by  making  the  cabinet  officers  (who 
were  all,  of  course,  of  the  President's  own  party)  the  heirs  to 
the  presidency  in  the  order  of  the  creation  of  their  departments, 
beginning  with  the  Secretary  of  State. 

Important  as  Cleveland  regarded  his  contest  for  the  restora-  754.  The 
tion  of  the  independence  and  dignity  of  the  executive  office,  —  the  surplus 
so  completely  overshadowed  by  Congress  since  the  Civil  War,  — 
he  felt  that  his  chief  duty  was  the  protection  of  the  public  purse 
by  the  strictest  administration  of  the  government's  finances.  The 
unexampled  prosperity  of  our  country  after  the  panic  of  1873 
had  created  so  much  wealth  at  home,  and  stimulated  such  a  vol 
ume  of  foreign  trade,  that  the  tariff  duties  and  revenue  taxes 
brought  into  the  Treasury  every  year  far  more  than  enough 
money  to  run  the  government.  From '$10,000,000  in  1870  the 
surplus  grew  to  $145,000,000  in  1882,  and  in  the  three  years 
following  the  government  rolled  up  the  huge  balance  of  $446,- 
000,000.  This  large  surplus  was  an  evil  in  itself  because  it 
withdrew  millions  of  dollars  from  the  channels  of  business  to  lie 
idle  in  the  vaults  of  the  Treasury  ;  and  it  was  also  the  proof  of 
a  greater  evil  still,  the  excessive  taxation  of  the  people.  Now 
the  accumulation  of  a  surplus  could  be  remedied  in  either  of  two 


5  3  6      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


755.  why 
ment^  not 


the  national 
debt 


756.  various 

reducing 
the  surplus 


ways,  —  the  government  might  increase  its  expenses  or  it  might 
decrease  its  revenues.  Obviously,  only  the  latter  way  would 
lessen  the  burden  of  taxation. 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  most  natural  thing  for  the  govern 
-merit  to  do  with  its  surplus  would  be  to  pay  off  its  debts,  as  an 
nonest  man  would  do.  But  the  matter  was  not  so  simple  as 
an  individual  transaction  would  be.  The  government's  debt  was 
largely  in  the  shape  of  bonds,  which  were  held  as  safe  invest- 
,ments  by  people  at  home  and  abroad,  and  which,  on  account  of 
our  general  prosperity,  were  selling  at  a  high  figure.  For  the 
government  to  step  into  the  market  and  buy  back  its  own 
•bonds  from  the  public  at  a  premium,  would  not  only  mean 
considerable  loss  to  the  Treasury,  but  would  deprive  the  public 
of  one  of  its  best  forms  of  investment  as  well.  Besides,  as  the 
bonds  were  the  security  on  which  the  notes  of  the  national 
.banks  were  issued  (p.  453,  note),  to  call  in  and  cancel  the  bonds 
would  mean  to  reduce  the  circulation  of  bank  notes,  just  at  a 
time,  too,  when  more  currency  was  needed  for  the  volume  of 
the  country's  trade.1 

Besides  extinguishing  the  national  debt  there  were  other  ways 
in  which  the  surplus  might  be  spent.  Congress  might  appropri- 
ate  jarge  sums  for  the  improvement  of  rivers  and  harbors,  for 
coast  defenses  and  a  new  navy,  for  education  in  the  South,  or 
increased  pensions  to  veterans  of  the  Civil  War.  But  this  idea 
of  the  public  Treasury  as  a  bountiful  source  of  wealth  for  en- 
-couraging  the  development  of  our  country  —  the  old  "  Ameri 
can  system  "  of  Henry  Clay  and  the  Whigs  —  was  opposed  to 
all  the  tradition  and  practice  of  the  Democratic  party.  Cleveland 
.phrased  the  matter  neatly  in  one  of  his  epigrams,  "  The  people 
must  support  the  government,  but  the  government  must  not 
support  the  people." 

1  In  spite  of  these  considerations  the  government  bought  bonds  to  the  value 
of  $50,000,000  in  1886,  $125,000,000  in  1887,  and  $130,000,000  in  1888.  The  bank 
note  circulation  was  reduced  $126,000,000  between  1886  and  1890.  This  lack  of 
notes,  however,  was  largely  remedied  in  1886  by  the  issue  of  silver  certificates  by 
the  Treasury  in  denominations  of  $i,  $2,  and  $5. 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  537 

The  logical  and  only  remedy,  then,  for  the  disposal  of  the  sur-  757.  Reduc- 
plus,  the  remedy  which  would  both  relieve  the  people  of  undue  tariff  the* 
taxation  and  remove  from  Congress  the  temptation  to  squander  best  remedy 
the  people's  money,  was  the  reduction  of  the  tariff.  To  this  end 
Cleveland  devoted  the  chief  energies  of  his  administration.  He 
began  the  attack  on  the  protective  tariff  in  his  first  annual  mes 
sage  to  Congress  (December,  1885),  but  the  House  refused  by 
a  vote  of  154  to  149  to  consider  any  bill  for  revision.  In  De 
cember,  1886,  the  President  returned  to  the  attack,  calling  the 
tariff  a  "  ruthless  extortion  "  of  the  people's  money  ;  and  the 
next  year  he  so  far  departed  from  precedent  as  to  devote  his 
entire  annual  message  (December,  1887)  to  the  tariff  situation. 
He  declared  that  it  was  not  a  time  for  the  nice  discussion  of 
theories  of  free  trade  and  protection.  It  might,  or  might  not, 
be  true  that  a  protective  tariff  made  American  wages  higher, 
kept  our  money  in  our  own  country,  built  up  a  market  for 
American  manufactures,  and  made  us  independent  of  foreign 
nations  for  the  necessities  of  life.  He  did  not  advocate  free 
trade.  He  only  insisted  that  the  people  were  being  overtaxed 
by  a  tariff  that  was  "  vicious,  illegal,  and  inequitable,"  and  that 
the  surplus  must  be  reduced  at  once.  "It  is  a  condition  that 
confronts  us,  and  not  a  theory/'  he  wrote. 

By  dint  of  much  persuasion  Cleveland   got  the  House  to  753.  The 
pass  a  tariff  bill,  framed  by  Roger  Q.  Mills  of  Texas,  reducing 


the  duties  by  some  7  or  8  per  cent.    But  the  Republican  Sen-  P°licy  of 

tariff  reduc- 
iate  retused  to  agree,  and  the  rates   remained  as  they  were  tion 

i  under  President  Arthur.  Cleveland  had  spent  his  entire  term 
'j  fighting  for  a  reduction  of  the  tariff,  and  lost.  His  daring  mes- 
isage  of  1887,  written  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  manufac 
turing  interests  in  the  Democratic  party,  was  taken  up  by  the 
Republican  campaign  orators  and  pamphleteers  and  attacked  as 
a  free-trade  document  which  showed  hostility  to  the  prosperity 
of  American  industry  and  indifference  to  the  welfare  of  the 
American  wage  earner.  The  presidential  campaign  of  1888 
was  waged  entirely  on  the  issue  of  the  tariff,  in  the  very  days 


538      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

when  the  Mills  Bill  was  before  Congress.  The  issue  of  that 
campaign  in  the  defeat  of  Cleveland  seemed  to  fix  the  policy 
of  protection  as  an  unalterable  principle  of  American  politics.1 
In  the  four  revisions  of  the  tariff  which  have  been  made  since 
that  day  (the  McKinley  Bill  of  1890,  the  Wilson-Gorman  Bill 
of  1894,  the  Dingley  Bill  of  1898,  and  the  Payne-Aldrich  Bill 
of  1909)  the  duties  have  been  kept  at  figures  averaging  about 
50  per  cent,  —  the  highest  duties  in  our  history. 

759.  The  Had  Cleveland's  fight  for  the  reduction  of  the  tariff  come 
encouraged      ten  years  earlier,  it  would  have  had  a  better  chance  for  success, 
by  the  trusts    gut  jn  the  decade  which  had  followed  the  financial  panic  of 

1873  a  process  had  been  going  on  which  gave  great  strength 
to  the  protectionist  policy.  This  was  the  consolidation  of  busi 
ness  interests  into  large  corporations,  or  "  trusts."  2  By  the  end 
of  Cleveland's  first  administration  the  great  "  coal  roads  "  of 
Pennsylvania  (the  Erie,  the  Lehigh  Valley,  the  Pennsylvania, 
the  Lackawanna),  had  got  control  of  practically  all  the  anthracite- 
coal  beds  in  the  country.  The  lumber  men,  the  whisky  distil 
lers,  the  oil,  lead,  and  sugar  refiners,  the  rope  makers,  the  iron 
smelters,  with  many  other  "  captains  of  industry,"  were  consoli 
dated  into  great  trusts.  Their  wealth  gave  them  immense  influ 
ence  in  Congress,  and  this  influence  was  exerted  steadily  against 
the  reduction  of  tariff  duties,  which  shielded  them  from  foreign 
competition. 

760.  The  The  consolidation  of  capital  in  great  corporations  was  attended  i 
Lai>o?andf       m  tne  same  epoch  by  combinations  of  laborers  for  the  secur- 
their  demands  mg  of  adequate  wages,  a  fair  working  day,  humane  treatment  in 

1  The  Republican  platform  of  1888  says,  "We  favor  the  entire  repeal  of; 
internal  taxes  [i.e.  revenue  on  tobacco,  liquors,  patent  medicines,  etc.]  rather 
than  the  surrender  of  any  part  of  our  protective  system." 

2  The  "  trust "  (or  board  of  trustees)  was  originally  a  body  of  men  holding  in 
trust  the  certificates  of  stock  of  various  companies  included  in  a  combine.   This 
form  of  consolidation  was  forbidden  by  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law  of  1890, 
but  the  combinations  still  continue.   They  either  absorb  the  majority  of  the  stock 
of  the  various  companies  by  direct  purchase,  or  manage  the  various  companies 
by  identical  boards  of  directors.   The  name  "  trust "  is  now  commonly  applied  to 
any  combination  large  and  wealthy  enough  to  tend  to  monopolize  the  production 
and  distribution  of  any  commodity. 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  53« 

case  of  sickness  or  disability,  and  protection  against  unmerited 
discharge.  The  Knights  of  Labor,  organized  by  the  garment^ 
cutters  of  Philadelphia  in  1869,  had  grown  by  1886  to  a  national 
organization  with  over  700,000  members.  The  object  of  the 
organization  was  to  unite  the  workers  of  America  into  a  great 
brotherhood  whose  motto  was,  "  The  injury  of  one  is  the  con 
cern  of  all."  It  declared  in  its  preamble  that  "  the  alarming 
development  and  aggression  of  great  capitalists  and  corpora 
tions,  unless  checked,  will  inevitably  lead  to  the  pauperization 
and  hopeless  degradation  of  the  toiling  masses."  It  demanded 
for  the  workers  "  full  enjoyment  of  the  wealth  they  create  and 
sufficient  leisure  to  develop  their  intellectual,  moral,  and  social 
faculties,  to  share  in  the  gains  and  honors  of  advancing  civiliza 
tion."  For  the  accomplishment  of  these  ends  the  order  made 
demands  on  state  and  national  governments  for  laws  guaran 
teeing  the  health  and  safety  of  workers  in  mines  and  factories, 
prohibiting  the  employment  of  children,  enforcing  arbitration 
of  disputes  between  capital  and  labor,  laying  a  graduated  tax 
on  incomes,  forbidding  the  importation  of  foreign  labor  or  the 
employment  of  convict  labor,  and  securing  the  "  nationalizing  " 
(i.e.  the  purchase  by  the  government)  of  the  telegraphs,  the 
telephones,  and  the  railroads.1 

The  strife  between  capital  and  labor  was  very  bitter  in  Cleve-  761.  Cleve 
land's  first  term.    Over  500  labor  disputes,  chiefly  over  wages  ^tempts  to 

and  hours  of  work,  were  reported  in  the  early  months  of  1886  ;  remedy  the 

labor  troubles 

and  the  number  of  strikes  for  that  year  was  double  the  number 
of  any  previous  year.2  President  Cleveland  was  greatly  con 
cerned  over  these  labor  troubles.  In  the  spring  of  1886  he 

1  The  labor  movement  became  prominent  in  politics  and  literature  in  the  year 
1886,  when  Henry  George,  the  author  of  "  Progress  and  Poverty  "  and  an  advocate 
of  the  "single  tax"  (a  tax  on  land  only  and  not  on  industry  or  commerce),  ran 
for  mayor  of  New  York  on  the  labor  platform.   A  widely  read  novel  of  Edward 
Bellamy,  entitled  "  Looking  Backward,"  pictured  the  Utopian  state  of  society  in 
the  year  2000,  when  complete  cooperation  should  have  taken  the  place  of  com 
petition  and  wage  struggles. 

2  The  number  of  strikes  tabulated  by  Adams  and  Sumner,  "  Labor  Problems  " 
(p.  180),  is  as  follows:  1884,485  ;  1885,695  ;  1886, 1572  ;  1887, 1505  ;  1888,946.  The 
most  serious  of  the  strikes  of  1886  culminated  in  a  deed  of  horror.   An  open-air 


540      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

sent  to  Congress  a  special  message  on  the  subject, —  the  first 
presidential  message  on  labor  in  our  history.  The  House  had 
already  appointed  a  standing  committee  on  labor  and  created 
(1884)  a  national  Bureau  of  Labor  in  the  Department  of  the  In 
terior  for  collecting  statistics  on  the  condition  of  wage  earners. 
Cleveland  now  recommended  the  creation  of  a  national  commis 
sion  of  labor,  to  consist  of  three  persons  who  should  have  power 
to  hear  and  settle  controversies  between  capital  and  labor.  Con 
gress  failed  to  adopt  this  important  recommendation,  but  several 
of  the  states  (including  Massachusetts  and  New  York)  passed 
laws  providing  for  the  settlement  of  labor  disputes  by  arbitration. 

762.  The  The  most  serious  trouble  was  with  the  railroads.    We  have 

abuses  of  the      ,        ,  .        „, 

railroads          already  seen  in  the  Granger  movement  the  hostility  of  the 

Western  farmers  to  the  railroads  in  the  early  seventies  (p.  513). 
As  the  great  wheat  and  corn  fields,  the  ranches,  and  the  mines 
west  of  the  Mississippi  were  developed,  and  the  cities  of  the 
Middle  West  grew  into  busy  manufacturing  and  distributing 
centers,  the  problem  of  freight  transportation  became  of  in 
creasing  importance.  The  railways,  except  for  some  slight  com 
petition  on  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi,  had  a  monopoly 
of  this  transportation,  and  their  charges  were  virtually  a  tax  on 
the  producer  and  the  manufacturer,  —  a  tax  which  the  roads 
could  regulate  at  their  own  good  pleasure.  Now  in  matters  of 
taxation  the  public  objects  both  to  excessive  rates  and  to  a  differ 
ence  in  rates  for  different  persons, —  to  extortion  and  to  discrim 
ination.  It  felt  that  the  railroads  were  guilty  of  the  former  offense, 
and  knew  that  they  were  guilty  of  the  latter.  It  saw  their 
power  and  wealth  increasing  with  fabulous  rapidity.1  It  saw 

meeting  in  Haymarket  Square,  Chicago,  called  by  anarchists  to  protest  against 
the  forcible  repression  of  the  strike  in  the  McCormick  Reaper  Works,  and  to  de 
mand  an  eight-hour  day,  was  ordered  by  the  police  to  disperse.  When  the  police 
charged,  a  dynamite  bomb  was  thrown  into  the  midst  of  the  squad,  instantly  kill 
ing  seven  men  and  wounding  sixty  more.  With  intrepid  step  the  police  closed 
their  ranks  and  dispersed  the  meeting.  The  ringleaders  of  the  anarchists  were 
arrested,  and  the  next  year  four  of  them  were  hanged. 

1  The  railroad  mileage  doubled  in  the  decade  1870-1880,  growing  from  53,000 
to  100,000  miles.  During  the  years  1879-1884  the  mileage  increased  four  times 
as  fast  as  the  population  of  the  United  States. 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  541 

their  influence  extending  into  state  legislatures  and  the  national 
Congress.  It  saw  them  allying  themselves  with  trusts,  like  the  -:f 
Standard  Oil  Company,  to  crush  out  competition  and  ruin  the 
small  producer.  It  saw  them  disturbing  the  natural  spread  of 
industry  by  offering  low  rates  to  one  locality  and  charging  high 
rates  to  another.  It  saw  them  cutting  their  rates  on  through 
hauls  from  Chicago  or  St.  Louis  to  New  York,  where  there  was 
competition  with  other  trunk  lines,  and  making  up  the  loss  by 
charging  high  freights  to  shippers  who  depended  on  one  road 
alone  for  getting  their  products  to  the  markets. 

In  all  this  the  public  judged  the  railroads  to  be  guilty  of  gross 
injustice  and  ingratitude.  They  had  been  granted  charters  by  the 
states  as  public  benefactors ;  they  had  been  the  recipients  of 
large  grants  of  public  lands ;  they  had  been  accorded  privileges 
of  tax  exemption ;  they  had  been  allowed  to  take  private  prop 
erty  when  necessary  for  the  construction  of  their  lines;  they 
had  had  their  bonds  guaranteed  by  the  state  legislatures.  Their 
obvious  duty  in  return  for  these  favors  was  to  give  the  public 
the  best  possible  service  consistent  with  a  fair  interest  on  the 
actual  capital  invested  in  their  construction  and  operation. 

These  great  railroad  corporations,  or  "  transportation  trusts,"  763.  The 
like  the  oil  and  lumber  and  whisky  trusts,  were  chartered  by  Lavvf  and 
the  state  legislatures.  The  national  government  had  no  specific 
power  given  it  by  the  Constitution  to  deal  with  the  business 
interests  of  the  country,  although  it  had,  during  its  period  of 
great  authority  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  created  a  system 
of  national  banks.  Some  of  the  state  legislatures,  responding 
to  the  outcry  against  the  railroads,  passed  so-called  Granger 
Laws,  holding  the  roads  to  fair  and  equitable  freight  charges. 
But  when  a  decision  in  the  United  States  court  (Wabash 
Railroad  vs.  the  State  of  Illinois)  ruled  in  1886  that  no  state 
law  could  apply  to  commerce  carried  on  between  two  or  more 
states,  the  Granger  Laws  were  seen  to  be  ridiculously  ineffec 
tive,  for  no  railroad  of  any  importance  had  its  traffic  confined 
to  a  single  state. 


the  Wabash 
case 


542      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

764.  The          Now  the  Constitution  (Article  I,  Sect.  8,  clause  3)  gives  Con- 
interstate  ..  .  .  .    . 

commerce     gress  power     to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and 

Act,  1887  among  the  several  states. "  By  virtue  of  this  power  Congress  passed 
the  famous  Interstate  Commerce  Act  (or  Cullom  Act)  in  Feb 
ruary,  1887.  The  act  provided  for  a  commission  of  five  men, 
with  power  to  investigate  the  books  of  railroads  doing  inter 
state  business  and  to  call  the  managers  of  the  roads  to  hearings. 
It  forbade  any  discrimination  in  rates,  and  required  the  roads  to 
file  their  tariffs  for  public  inspection.  It  prohibited  the  "  pooling" 
of  traffic *  and  the  charging  of  a  higher  rate  on  a  short  haul  than 
on  a  long  haul.  The  commission  had  no  power  of  jurisdiction, 
but  only  of  investigation ;  that  is,  each  case  against  a  railroad 
had  to  be  tried  in  a  federal  court.  The  influence  of  the  railroads 
with  the  courts  and  the  skill  of  shrewd  corporation  lawyers  in 
"  interpreting  "  the  rather  vague  language  of  the  statute  reduced 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Act  to  a  "  useless  piece  of  legislation  " 
in  the  opinion  of  Justice  Harlan  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

765.  Effect       Yet,  for  all  its  failure  to  control  the  railroads  adequately,  the 
on  future      act  was  of  great  importance.    It  taught  the  people  that  our 
legislation    gOvernment  could  and  would  exert  its  power  in  the  sphere  of 

private  industries.  It  made  the  railroads  open  their  books  and 
publish  their  rates ; 2  and  this  wholesome  prescription  of  pub 
licity  sobered  many  a  reckless  board  of  directors.  Most  impor 
tant  of  all,  it  created  a  precedent  for  the  government  regulation 
of  railroads  and  other  corporations,  and  made  the  more  effective 
legislation  that  has  followed  (in  the  Elkins  Bill  of  1903,®  the 
Hepburn  Bill  of  1906,*  and  the  Taft  administration  measures 

1  By  "  pooling  "  is  meant  dividing  the  traffic  by  amicable  agreement  among  the 
various  roads  which  would  naturally  compete  for  it.   The  total  profits  are  then 
put  into  a  common  treasury  and  divided  according  to  the  business  assigned  to 
each  road.    It  is  a  device  to  kill  competition  between  the  roads. 

2  During  1887  and  1888  about  270,000  freight  tariffs  were  filed.   At  one  time 
they  were  received  by  the  commission  at  the  rate  of  500  a  day. 

3  Prohibiting  the  giving  of  rebates  from  the  rates  of  the  published  tariffs,  and 
punishing  shippers  for  accepting  rebates  as  well  as  the  railroads  for  giving  them. 

4  Giving  the  commission  certain  powers  of  control  over  the  railroads  in  making 
rates. 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  543 

of  19 1  o1),  seem  like  the  natural  extension  of  a  policy  already 
firmly  established  by  the  government. 

President  Cleveland  came  out  of  the  trying  circumstances  766.  cieve- 
of  his  first  administration  indisputably  the  leading  man  of  the  riwm^iaS?1" 
Democratic  party.  Even  his  enemies  in  the  party  were  obliged 
to  concede  his  "  unflinching  integrity  and  robust  common 
sense."  He  had  shown  a  generation  which  had  grown  up  with 
out  seeing  a  Democrat  in  the  presidential  chair  that  the  word 
was  not  a  synonym  for  "  rebel,"  "  free  trader,"  "  demagogue," 
or  "  horse  thief."  He  was  renominated  by  acclamation  in  the 
Democratic  national  convention  held  at  St.  Louis  in  June, 
1888.  Elaine,  his  rival  in  1884,  was  absent  in  Europe  on  an 
extended  trip.  He  would  undoubtedly  have  been  the  choice 
of  the  Republican  convention  at  Chicago  had  he  not  written 
from  Florence,  and  again  cabled  from  Paris,  his  unconditional 
refusal  to  take  the  nomination.  The  convention,  passing  over 
the  more  prominent  candidate,  John  Sherman,  selected,  at 
Elaine's  suggestion,2  General  Benjamin  Harrison,  United  States 
senator  from  Indiana,  an  able  lawyer  and  an  honored  veteran 
of  the  Civil  War,  the  grandson  of  the  old  Whig  hero  and  Presi 
dent,  William  Henry  Harrison. 

The  campaign  was  waged  almost  entirely  on  the  tariff  issue.  767.  why 
It  had  none  of  the  slanderous,  vituperative  character  of  the 
campaign  of  1884,  although  money  was  freely  spent  to  win  the 
doubtful  states  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  New  York.    Cleveland's 

1  Enlarging  the  commission's  powers  in  rate  making,  requiring  careful  classi 
fications  of  freight,  prohibiting  the  roads  from  changing  rates  approved  by  the 
commission,  including  telegraphs,  telephones,  and  cable  service  under  the  com 
mission's  jurisdiction,  allowing  it  to  suspend  a  freight  rate  for  ten  months  even 
without  complaint  by  a  shipper,  and  creating  a  special  court  of  commerce  to  hear 
appeals  from  the  decision  of  the  commission.   This  thorough  bill  of  1910  con 
tained  originally  provisions  to  let  the  commission  supervise  the  issues  of  rail 
road  stocks  and  bonds,  and  to  make  a  valuation  of  the  railroad  as  a  basis  for  the 
determination  of  fair  freight  rates  ;  but  these  provisions  failed  of  adoption. 

2  After  the  fifth  ballot  had  been  cast  a  cable  message  was  sent  by  the  conven 
tion  leaders  to  Elaine,  who  was  visiting  Andrew  Carnegie  at  his  country  seat,  Skibo 
Castle,  in  Scotland,  asking  him  to  change  his  mind  and  accept  the  nomination. 
The  answer  came :  "Too  late.   Elaine  immovable.  Take  Harrison  and  Phelps." 
The  convention  took  Harrison  and  Morton. 


544       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

famous  tariff  message  of  1887  was  denounced  as  a  free-trade 
document  by  Republican  orators,  and  the  benefits  of  a  pro 
tective  tariff  were  lauded  in  a  long  cablegram  from  Elaine,  con 
gratulating  the  American  workman  on  his  advantages  over 
his  European  brother.  Cleveland  lost  the  support  of  the 
veterans  of  the  Civil  War  by  his  veto  of  a  great  number  of 
pension  bills,1  and  by  his  executive  order  directing  that  the 
Confederate  flags  stored  in  the  War  Building  at  Washington  be 
restored  to  the  Southern  states  from  whose  regiments  they  had 
been  captured.2  And,  finally,  in  the  pivotal  state  of  New  York, 
David  B.  Hill,  an  unscrupulous  politician  and  a  bitter  enemy 
of  the  President,  arranged  a  "  deal "  with  the  Republicans  by 
which  the  anti-Cleveland  men  should  give  Harrison  presidential 
votes  in  return  for  gubernatorial  votes  for  Hill.  The  "  Harrison 
and  Hill  ticket"  won.  The  state  went  Republican  by  13,000 
in  a  total  of  1,300,000  votes,  giving  Harrison  the  presidency. 
Cleveland's  popular  vote  throughout  the  country,  however,  ex 
ceeded  Harrison's  by  over  100,000 — more  than  double  the 
popular  plurality  of  any  successful  presidential  candidate  since 
1872.  Mr.  Cleveland  retired  to  private  life  with  this  splendid 
indorsement  of  his  policies  by  his  fellow  citizens. 

A    BlLLION-DOLLAR    COUNTRY 

768.  The  Re-  Although  the  election  of  1888  gave  the  Republicans  only  a 
acS^iSSg-  narrow  majority  in  Congress,  and  actually  registered  a  popular 
1890  triumph  for  Cleveland,  the  Republicans  proceeded  as  though 

1  In  1885  nearly  three  times  as  many- persons  were  receiving  pensions  from 
the  government  as  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.    In  1866  our  pension  charge 
was  $15,000,000  ;  by  1885  it  had  grown  to  $65,000,000.    Pensions  were  obtained  by 
swindling  agents  on  absurd  claims.    Hundreds  of  pension  bills  were  passed  at  a 
single  sitting  of  the  Senate.    Cleveland  insisted  on  investigating  each  case  thor 
oughly,  and  vetoed  some  100  out  of  the  747  pension  bills  passed  in  his  first  term. 
Only  one  was  passed  over  his  veto. 

2  This  so-called  '"  Rebel  Flag  Order  "  was  a  blunder  on  the  part  of  the  Presi 
dent.   He  had  no  authority  to  restore  the  flags,  which  were  national  property ;  and 
he  revoked  the  order  when  he  saw  his  mistake.    In  1905  a  Republican  Congress 
passed  a  bill  restoring  the  "  rebel  flags  "  to  their  states,  and  the  bill  was  signed 
by  a  Republican  President. 


The  Cleveland  Democracy 


545 


they  had  been  swept  into  office  by  a  tidal  wave  like  Jackson's 
victory  of  1828  or  the  Whig  revolution  of  1840.  They 
reversed  the  entire  policy  of  the  Cleveland  administration,  advo 
cating  lavish  expenditures  in  the  place  of  public  economy,  re 
newed  coercion  of  the  South  instead  of  conciliation,  increase  in 
tariff  rates  rather  than  reduction,  a  bold,  aggressive  foreign 
policy  to  replace  the  cautious  diplomacy  carried  on  by  Cleveland's 
State  Department. 

The  new  President  was  a  complete  contrast  to  his  prede-  769.  Presi- 

.„.  .  ^  ,,       dent  Harrison 

cessor.    He  was  a  party  man,  willing  to  receive  and  respect  the  and  the  Re_ 

warning  sent  him  just  after  his 
election  by  the  leader  of  the  Sen 
ate,  John  Sherman  :  "  The  Presi 
dent  should  have  no  policy  distinct 
from  that  of  his  party,  and  this 
is  better  represented  in  Congress 
than  in  the  executive."  Courtesy 
required  that  Harrison  should 
offer  the  highest  position  in  his 
patronage  to  the  man  who  had 
made  him  the  choice  of  the  party. 
Elaine  accepted  the  portfolio  of 
State,  and  throughout  the  admin 
istration  completely  overshadowed 
his  nominal  chief  in  the  White 

House.  The  Speaker  of  the  House,  Thomas  B.  Reed  of  Maine, 
was  also  a  masterful,  conspicuous  figure  in  the  administration. 
He  ran  the  House  in  such  dictatorial  fashion  that  he  was  nick 
named  "  Czar  Reed."  The  Republican  majority  was  slim,  and 
the  Democrats  could  prevent  a  quorum  and  the  transaction 
of  business  by  refusing  to  answer  to  the  roll  call.  Speaker 
Reed  put  through  a  set  of  rules  which  authorized  him  to  count 
as  "  present "  all  members  on  the  floor  of  the  House ;  and  he 
extended  his  authority  even  to  the  corridors,  the  cloakroom, 
and  the  barber's  shop.  He  refused  to  recognize  speakers  or  put 


Benjamin  Harrison 


546      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

motions  whose  evident  intent  was  to  delay  the  business  of  the 
House.  In  a  word,  he  made  Congress  a  perfect  machine  for 
the  dispatch  of  the  Republican  program,  and  elevated  the 
Speaker  to  a  position  of  autocratic  power  which  he  held  unim 
paired  up  to  the  year  19 ic.1  Thus  in  both  branches  of  Congress 
and  in  the  cabinet  the  President  was  dwarfed  by  men  whose 
talents,  force,  and  popularity  far  exceeded  his  own. 

770.  Expend-       The  Republican  Congress  of  1880-1801,  approving  the  re- 

ituresofCon-  v  B  ,        .  . 

gress  on          mark  or  General  Grant  s  son  that     a  surplus  is  easier  to  handle 

andUpenSons  than  a  deficit,"  began  immediately  to  reduce  the  surplus  by 
generous  appropriations.  It  increased  the  number  of  steel  ves 
sels  in  the  navy  from  three  vessels  in  1889  to  twenty-two  in 
1893,  putting  the  United  States  among  the  half-dozen  greatest 
naval  powers  of  the  world.  It  spent  large  sums  on  coast  de 
fenses,  lighthouses,  and  harbors.  It  repaid  the  state  treasuries 
some  $15,000,000  of  the  direct  taxes  levied  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Civil  War.  But  its  chief  extravagance  was  in  the  matter 
of  pensions.  During  the  campaign,  Harrison,  referring  to  Cleve 
land's  careful  examination  of  all  applications  for  pensions,  re 
marked  that  it  was  "  no  time  to  be  weighing  the  claims  of  the 
old  soldiers  with  an  apothecary's  scales."  Congress  now  pro 
ceeded  to  grant  them  pensions  without  weighing  their  claims 
at  all.  The  raid  on  the  Treasury  was  uninterrupted.  The  dis 
bursements  for  pensions  rose  during  Harrison's  term  from 
$88,000,000  to  $159,000,000  annually,  —  a  sum  greater  than 
the  cost  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States  in  any 
year  of  peace  during  the  nineteenth  century.2 

1  The  immense  power  of  the  Speaker  consisted  in  the  fact  that  he  appointed  all 
the  committees  of  the  House,  that  as  presiding  officer  he  could  recognize,  or  not, 
as  he  pleased,  the  member  who  rose  to  speak,  and  that  he  was  c x  officio  on  the  Rules 
Committee,  which  arranges  the  whole  calendar  of  the  House,  and  can  keep  any 
bill  from  "coming  up"  as  long  as  it  chooses  to.    In  the  spring  of  1910  a  body 
of  Republican  insurgents,  with  the  help  of  Democratic  votes,  passed  a  resolution 
depriving  the  Speaker  (Joseph  G.  Cannon)  of  some  of  his  power.  For  example, 
he  was  "  deposed  "  from  the  Rules  Committee,  which  is  hereafter  to  be  elected  by 
the  House. 

2  "Corporal"  Tanner,  commissioner  of  pensions   appointed   by   President 
Harrison,  is  said  to  have  remarked  on  taking  office,  "  God  help  the  surplus  I " 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  547 

Altogether  the  appropriations  of  Harrison's  first  Congress  771.  our 
reached  the  $1,000,000,000  mark.    When  the  Democrats  cried  country*01 


out  at  the  extravagance  of  a  billion-dollar  Congress,  Speaker  Th 
Reed  quietly  replied  that  it  was  "  a  billion-dollar  country."  In 
fact  the  eleventh  census  (1890),  compiled  in  25  volumes,  re 
vealed  the  astonishing  prosperity  of  the  United  States  at  the  end 
of  the  first  century  of  its  existence  under  the  Constitution.1 
Our  population  was  62,500,000  and  our  wealth  $65,000,000,- 
ooo.  Especially  noticeable  was  the  concentration  of  our  people 
in  cities.  The  number  of  cities  of  over  8000  inhabitants  doubled 
in  the  decade  1880-1890,  and  by  the  latter  year  such  cities 
contained  fully  one  half  the  population  of  New  England,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania.  Advance  in  civilization 
tends  to  encourage  greater  centralization  of  government,  and 
with  the  extension  of  the  government's  activities  brings  an 
increasing  ratio  of  the  expense  of  government  to  population. 
In  Washington's  day  our  country  of  5,000,000  inhabitants, 
largely  of  the  farming  class,  could  be  run  for  $11,000,000  a 
year,  a  little  over  two  dollars  a  head.  The  estimated  expenses 
for  the  year  1910  (exclusive  of  the  Post  Office  Department) 
were  $735,000,000,  or  about  eight  dollars  a  head  for  a  popula 
tion  of  over  90,000,000.  A  billion  dollars,  therefore,  for  the  two 
years  1889-1891,  when  our  population  was  62,500,000,  meant 
almost  exactly  the/^r  capita  expense  of  our  country  at  the  present 
day  —  certainly  an  extravagance  for  twenty  years  ago. 

The  census  showed  also  that  the  South  was  recovering  from  772.  Progress 
the  ravages  of  the  Civil  War  and  the  Reconstruction  period,  of  the  South 
and  was  beginning  that   marvelous  career  of  industrial  pros 
perity  which  has  been  the  feature  of  our  growth  in  the  present 

Six  months  of  his  extravagance  was  all  the  Republican  Congress  could  stand. 
Although  twenty-five  years  had  passed  since  the  close  of  the  war  a  Dependent 
Pension  Bill  gave  from  $6  to  $12  a  month  to  all  men  who  had  served  90  days 
in  the  war,  whether  or  not  their  inability  to  earn  their  support  was  due  to  injuries 
received  in  the  service. 

1  A  few  weeks  after  his  inauguration  Mr.  Harrison  had  been  the  central  figure 
in  an  imposing  pageant  in  New  York  City  in  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  inauguration  of  George  Washington  (April  30,  1789). 


773.  New 
states  in  the 
Northwest, 
1889-1890 


548       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

generation.  Encouraged  by  Northern  capital,  the  South  was 
building  mills  for  spinning  her  own  cotton,  improving  her 
transportation  lines  by  land  and  water,  exploiting  the  splendid 
forests  of  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia,  and  opening  the  rich 
deposits  of  coal  and  iron  which  stretched  in  an  unbroken  line 
of  300  miles  through  the  highlands  from  West  Virginia  to 
Alabama.  By  1890  the  latter  state  ranked  third  in  the  Union 


The  Locks  in  the  "  Soo  " 

The  Sault  Sainte  Marie  Canal  at  the  outlet  of  Lake  Superior,  through  which  over 
$40,000,000  worth  of  merchandise  passes  annually 

in  the  production  of  iron,_and  the  South  as  a  whole  was  produc 
ing  more  coal  and  iron  than  the  whole  country  had  mined 
twenty  years  earlier. 

In  the  Far  Northwest  the  tier  of  territories  extending  from 
Minnesota  to  Oregon  were  filling  rapidly  with  farmers,  ranch 
men,  lumbermen,  and  miners.  The  Indian  frontier  had  largely 
disappeared.  The  reservations  were  an  obstacle  to  the  Pacific 
railroads,  and  had  to  go.  The  government  tried  to  break  up  the 
tribal  organization  of  the  Indians  by  the  Dawes  Bill  of  1887, 


TERRITORIAL,  GROWTH  OF  THE 

UNITED    STATES 

ON  THE  AMERICAN  CONTINENT 
1776  to  the  present  time 


&aff 

B  ^ 


1/8 


A. 
A&4~% 


100      200      3QO     400 
SCALE  OF  MILES 


500 


J5 


30 


Vest 


from     92  °          Greenwich 


87° 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  549 

which  granted  each  head  of  an  Indian  family  160  acres  of  land 
and  American  citizenship.  The  next  year  some  15,000  Indian 
youths  were  in  government  schools,  where  it  was  hoped  that 
they  would  be  weaned  by  the  industry  and  science  of  the  white 
man  from  the  shiftless,  roaming,  cruel  life  of  the  tribe.  With  the 
stubborn  but  vain  resistance  of  the  Sioux  of  Dakota,  in  1890, 
to  the  advancing  tide  of  civilization  our  great  Indian  wars  were 
at  an  end.  By  that  date  the  territories  of  the  Northwest  had 
already  become  states  of  the  Union.  On  November  2,  1889, 
President  Harrison  proclaimed  the  admission  of  North  and  South 
Dakota,  Montana,  and  Washington,  and  the  next  year  Idaho  and 
Wyoming  were  added.  For  the  first  time  in  our  history  an 
unbroken  tier  of  states  reached  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.1 

Politics  figured  in  the  admission  to  statehood  of  the  six  great 
territories  of  the  Northwest.  The  Republicans  counted  on  a 
majority  in  all  of  them  except  Montana,  as  they  had  been 
largely  settled  by  pioneers  from  the  stanch  Republican  states  of 
Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  and  Illinois.  As  states  they  were 
expected  to  contribute  ten  senators  and  five  or  six  repre 
sentatives  to  the  slim  Republican  majority  in  Congress,  besides 
adding  about  fifteen  electoral  votes  to  the  Republican  column 
in  the  next  presidential  year. 

The  Republicans  also  renewed  the  attempt,  apparently  aban-  774.  The 
doned  during  the  Haves  administration,  to  retain  the  colored  Jede^alEleC 

J  tion  Law  of 

vote  of  the  South.  There  was  no  doubt  that  the  Southern  states  1890 

1  The  government  purchased  from  the  Indians  the  district  of  Oklahoma  ("  the 
beautiful  land  ")  in  Indian  Territory  and  opened  it  for  settlement  at  noon,  April 
22,  1889.  A  horde  of  pioneers,  who  had  been  waiting  anxiously  on  the  borders, 
swarmed  into  the  coveted  territory,  and  before  night  several  "  cities  "  were  staked 
out.  In  1890  the  only  territories  that  remained  within  the  limits  of  the  United 
States  were  Utah,  Oklahoma,  Indian  Territory,  Arizona,  and  New  Mexico.  Utah 
was  entitled  to  statehood  by  its  population,  but  the  existence  of  the  Mormon  in 
stitution  of  polygamy  prevented  its  admission  until  the  Mormon  Church  prom 
ised  to  abolish  polygamy  (1895).  Oklahoma  and  Indian  Territory  were  combined 
and  admitted  as  the  state  of  Oklahoma  in  1908.  Bills  passed  Congress  in  1910 
enabling  Arizona  and  New  Mexico  to  frame  state  constitutions.  With  the  ad 
mission  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico  we  shall  have  a  solid  band  of  forty-eight 
states  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  our  only  territories  (Alaska,  Hawaii,  Porto 
Rico)  will  be  rather  of  the  nature  of  foreign  colonies. 


55°       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

were  violating  both  the  Fifteenth  and  the  Fourteenth  Amend 
ments.  They  were  depriving  the  negro  of  his  vote  by  fraud, 
force,  or  intimidation  ;  and  they  were  still  enjoying  a  representa 
tion  in  Congress  based  on  their  total  population,  black  and  white. 
At  the  time  of  Harrison's  election  they  had  over  twenty  congress 
men  and  presidential  electors  more  than  the  strict  enforcement  of 
the  second  section  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  would  entitle 
them  to.  Accordingly  the  Republican  House  of  1890  passed  the 
Federal  Election  Law  (called  by  the  Democrats  the  "  Force  Bill"), 
providing  that,  on  the  petition  of  500  voters,  federal  agents 
should  supervise  the  national  elections  in  any  district.  In  the 
more  conservative  Senate  the  bill  was  fortunately  defeated  ;  for 
tunately,  for,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  South  enjoys  a  larger 
representation  in  Congress  than  its  voting  population  entitles  it 
to,  the  reintroduction  of  federal  supervision  and  federal  arms  in 
the  Southern  elections  would  have  only  fanned  into  flame  the 
embers  of  sectional  bitterness.  The  failure  of  the  Federal  Elec 
tion  Bill  of  1890  marks  the  end  of  political  interference  by  the 
North  in  Southern  elections,  although  there  is  still  a  strong  and 
widespread  feeling  in  the  North  that  the  government  ought  to 
take  steps  to  protect  the  negro  against  lynching  and  to  guarantee 
him  his  constitutional  right  to  the  ballot.1 

775.  The  Me-  The  Republican  platform  of  1888  pledged  the  party  to  a  high 
protective  tariff.  In  the  spring  of  1890,  therefore,  William  Mc- 
Kinley  of  Ohio,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means, 

1  On  the  whole,  public  opinion  in  the  North  seems  to  favor  letting  the  South 
handle  the  negro  problem  in  its  own  way.  Most  of  the  Southern  states  have  framed 
constitutions  since  1890  containing  clauses  which  practically  disqualify  the  negro, 
for  a  while  at  least.  For  example,  in  the  Louisiana  Constitution  of  1898  the 
famous  "  grandfather  clause  "  restricts  the  suffrage  to  those  whose  grandfathers 
voted.  Under  this  clause  the  negro  registration  was  reduced  in  Louisiana  from 
127,000  in  1896  to  5300  in  1900.  The  Supreme  Court  has  refused  to  pronounce 
on  the  constitutionality  of  such  proceedings,  —  in  other  words,  has  "let  the 
South  alone,"  which  is  all  that  it  asks.  The  cause  for  this  complacency  on 
the  part  of  the  North  is  probably  chiefly  the  large  investments  of  Northern 
capital  in  Southern  industries,  and  the  consequent  desire  to  have  business  un 
disturbed  by  political  wranglings.  It  may  be  that  the  idea  of  a  tardy  reparation 
for  the  injuries  done  the  South  in  the  Reconstruction  days  also  influences  the 
Northern  attitude. 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  551 

introduced  into  the  House  the  tariff  bill  which  bears  his  name. 
Duties  were  increased  on  almost  all  articles  of  household  con 
sumption, —  food,  carpets,  clothing,  tools,  coal,  wood,  tinware, 
linen,  thread.  Prices  rose  immediately.  Wage  earners  felt  the 
pinch  throughout  the  country.  The  opponents  of  protection 
claimed  that  the  tariff  benefited  the  trusts  alone ;  that  the  in 
creased  American  capital  due  to  the  tariff  went  into  the  pockets 
of  the  manufacturers  as  profits,  not  to  the  workers  as  wages. 

So  perfect  was  the  Republican  House  machine  under  the  776.  The 
Reed  rules  that  the  important  McKinley  Bill  was  passed  in  less  ver Act?  1890 
than  two  weeks.  In  the  Senate,  however,  it  was  held  up  for 
four  months.  Seventeen  of  the  forty-seven  Republican  Senators 
came  from  farming  and  mining  states  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
They  were  not  much  interested  in  high  protection,  but  some  of 
them  were  very  much  interested  in  silver  mining.  They  thought 
Congress  ought  to  "  protect "  silver  as  an  American  product  just 
as  much  as  wool  or  iron.  This  could  not  be  done  by  any  kind 
of  tariff  legislation,  but  the  government  might  purchase  enough 
silver  to  keep  the  price  of  the  metal  from  falling  in  the  general 
market.  Although  by  the  Bland-Allison  Act  of  1878  (p.  518) 
the  government  had  for  twelve  years  been  purchasing  silver  at 
the  rate  of  $2,000,000  a  month,  the  price  of  the  metal  declined 
steadily.  The  silver  miners  clamored  for  the  government  to  buy 
still  more,  even  to  take  all  the  silver  that  should  be  brought  to 
the  mints.  In  order  to  win  the  Western  votes  for  the  tariff  and 
also  to  "do  something  for  silver  "  as  an  American  product,  Con 
gress  in  1890  passed  the  Sherman  Silver  Purchase  Act,  by  which 
it  pledged  the  government  to  buy  4,500,000  ounces  of  silver 
every  month  at  the  market  price  (at  that  time  about  a  dollar  an 
ounce),  and  issue  certificates  to  the  full  amount  of  the  silver 
purchased.  The  government  stored  the  silver  in  its  vaults,  and, 
as  the  price  kept  declining  in  spite  of  its  large  purchases,  it  saw 
its  accumulating  stock  constantly  shrinking  in  value.  The  next 
administration  reaped  the  full  curse  of  this  foolish  act  to  bribe 
the  "  silver  senators." 


552      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


777.  The 
"  tidal  wave 
of  1890 


778.  Our 
foreign  pol 
icy,  1891- 
1893 


779.  Pan- 
Americanism 
and  reci 
procity 


When  the  congressional  election  of  1890  approached,  the 
Republicans  had  been  in  power  for  twenty  months.  Their 
record  was  not  an  encouraging  one  on  which  to  go  before  the 
voters  of  the  country.  They  had  almost  emptied  the  Treasury 
by  expenditures,  especially  in  the  pension  department,  which 
seemed  reckless.  They  had  tried  to  revive  the  discarded  policy 
of  controlling  the  elections  in  the  South  by  federal  force.  They 
had  managed  Congress  with  a  high  hand,  and  sought  to  increase 
their  narrow  majorities  by  admitting  states  whose  population 
was  far  below  the  federal  ratio  of  representation.1  They  had 
committed  the  government  to  the  purchase  of  54,000,000 
ounces  of  silver  per  annum  at  a  constant  loss.  And,  finally,  they 
had  passed  a  tariff  act  which  increased  the  price  of  living  for 
every  household  in  the  land.  The  verdict  of  the  country  at 
the  polls  was  what  is  popularly  known  as  a  "  landslide,"  - 
a  crushing  condemnation  of  the  policy  of  the  party  in  power. 
The  election  returned  to  Congress  235  Democrats  and  88 
Republicans. 

For  the  remaining  two  years  of  Harrison's  term  nothing  in 
the  way  of  legislation  could  be  accomplished.  The  large  Demo 
cratic  majority  in  the  House  frustrated  the  administration's 
plans,  while  the  Senate,  with  its  Republican  majority  of  six, 
kept  the  House  from  repealing  the  high  tariff  legislation.  All 
interest  in  these  years  centers  in  the  foreign  policy  of  the  coun 
try,  where  the  executive  and  the  Senate  could  act  unhampered 
by  the  House. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Elaine,  during  his  few  months 
of  vigorous  service  as  Secretary  of  State  in  Garfield's  cabinet 
(1881),  had  tried  to  increase  our  influence  in  Central  and  South 
America  by  securing  control  of  the  Isthmian  Canal  route  and 
by  negotiating  reciprocity  treaties  of  commerce  between  the 
United  States  and  the  Latin- American  republics  (p.  527).  In 

1  In  1889  the  ratio  was  one  congressman  to  every  151,000  of  the  population. 
The  population  of  Montana  was  132,000,  of  Idaho  84,000,  and  of  Wyoming  only 
60,000  at  the  time  of  their  admission. 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  553 

Harrison's  cabinet  Elaine  resumed  his  active  policy.  A  Pan- 
American  Congress  (already  proposed  in  1881)  met  at  Wash 
ington  in  October,  1889.  It  was  composed  of  delegates  from 
nineteen  countries  of  Latin  America.  The  subjects  discussed 
were  mutual  trade  regulations,  a  uniform  standard  of  weights 
and  measures,  a  common  currency,  and  a  code  for  the  arbitra 
tion  of  the  frequent  quarrels  among  the  Latin  republics.  A 
Bureau  of  the  American  Republics  was  founded  at  Washing 
ton  to  keep  us  informed  of  the  fortunes  of  our  sister  states 
in  the  tropics.  Elaine  labored  hard  to  get  his  reciprocity  doctrine 
incorporated  into  the  McKinley  tariff  in  1890,  but  was  able  only 
to  get  a  partial  recognition  of  reciprocity  from  the  Senate.1 

Diplomatic  quarrels  with  Germany,  Great  Britain,  Italy,  and  780.  The 
Chile  brought  us  at  times  to  the  verge  of  war  during  Harrison's  islands 
administration.  The  Samoan  Islands  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  were 
occupied  on  a  "  tripartite  "  agreement  between  Great  Britain, 
Germany,  and  the  United  States.  Prince  Bismarck,  the  German 
chancellor,  was  anxious  to  build  up  a  large  colonial  empire  to 
rival  Great  Britain's.  Acting  under  his  orders  the  German  con 
sul  in  Samoa  schemed  to  oust  the  British  and  Americans.  He 
raised  the  German  flag  over  Apia,  the  chief  town  of  the  islands, 
set  up  his  own  "  king,"  declared  war  on  the  rightful  king  in 
the  name  of  his  Majesty  the  German  Emperor,  and  prepared 
to  shell  the  villages  which  resisted  him.  American  warships 

1  It  was  a  sort  of  "backhanded"  reciprocity  that  Mr.  Aldrich,  the  Senate 
leader,  got  into  the  bill.  Instead  of  removing  certain  duties  in  case  the  southern 
republics  opened  their  markets  to  our  products,  the  President  was  authorized  to 
ncrease  the  duties  in  case  those  republics  increased  the  tax  on  our  exports 
to  them.  Elaine  would  have  paid  with  our  pork,  beef,  lumber,  flour,  shoes, 
ron,  furniture,  for  the  coffee,  rubber,  hides,  drugs,  and  other  imports  from  the 
jsouthern  republics  which  did  not  compete  with  our  own  production,  thereby 
'stimulating  our  trade  and  reviving  our  shipping.  But  Congress  feared  that  it 
would  be  an  entering  wedge  for  free  trade.  Ten  years  later,  when  he  was  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  McKinley  himself  advocated  Elaine's  policy  of 
reciprocity.  It  was  the  topic  of  the  speech  he  made  at  the  Pan-American  Expo 
sition  at  Buffalo  on  the  eve  of  his  assassination  (September  5, 1901).  But  Congress 
steadily  refused  to  let  down  the  bars  of  protection  at  any  point  until,  under 
President  Taft's  urgent  advocacy,  it  passed,  in  extra  session  in  the  summer  of 
1911,  a  bill  providing  for  reciprocity  with  Canada. 


781.  The  seal 
fisheries  in 
Bering  Sea 


554      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

were  hurried  to  Apia,  and  the  decks  were  cleared  for  action, 
when  a  terrific  typhoon  struck  the  harbor  (March  16,  1889), 
capsizing  the  German  and  American  ships  or  dashing  them  on 
the  beach  and  the  coral  reefs.  A  conference  followed  at  Berlin 
the  next  month,  in  which  the  chancellor,  in  spite  of  much 
blustering,  was  forced  by  Blame's  firm  dispatches  to  recognize 
the  neutrality  of  the  islands  and  the  full  rights  of  England  and 


Our  Fleet  leaving  Hampton  Roads  on  its  Voyage  round  the  World 

the  United  States  in  the  protectorate  over  the  native  king.  It 
was  the  first  conspicuous  participation  of  our  country  in  "  world 
politics,"  and  it  was  also  a  spur  to  the  construction  of  an  ade 
quate  navy.  By  the  end  of  the  following  year  Congress  had 
appropriated  $40,000,000  for  the  building  of  new  warships,  and 
before  the  end  of  Harrison's  administration  we  had  risen  from 
the  twelfth  to  the  fifth  place  among  the  naval  powers. 

Blaine  had  inherited  from  the  Cleveland  administration  a  dis 
pute  with  Great  Britain  over  the  seal  fisheries  in  Bering  Sea. 
He  contended  that  Bering  Sea  was  a  mare  clausum  ("  closed 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  555 

sea"),  appertaining  entirely  to  Alaska,  and  hence  within  the 
sole  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States.  The  British  claimed  that 
it  was  the  "  high  sea,"  and  that  our  jurisdiction  extended  only 
to  the  ordinary  three-mile  limit  from  shore.  Under  executive 
orders  our  revenue  cutters  seized  eight  British  sealing  vessels 
during  the  summer  of  1889,  all  outside  the  three-mile  limit, 
and  Blaine  addressed  the  British  premier,  Lord  Salisbury,  in 
language  which  drew  in  reply  a  virtual  threat  of  war  (June, 
1890).  On  sober  reflection  our  government  receded  from  its 
dictatorial  position  and  agreed  to  submit  the  whole  matter  to 
arbitration.  The  tribunal,  which  met  at  Paris  in  1893,  decided 
every  point  against  us.  Bering  Sea  was  declared  open,  and  we 
were  forced  to  pay  damages  for  the  seizure  of  the  British 
vessels. 

Serious  quarrels  with  Italy  and  Chile  also  disturbed  the 
Harrison  administration.  In  the  former  case  the  Italian  gov 
ernment,  not  understanding  that  our  federal  administration  has 
no  concern  with  the  criminal  jurisdiction  of  any  state,  demanded 
that  our  State  Department  investigate  the  murder  of  some 
Italians  in  New  Orleans  and  bring  to  punishment  the  guilty 
men ;  while  in  Chile  a  revolutionary  party  which  had  over 
turned  the  government  objected  to  our  minister's  offering  an 
asylum  to  the  leaders  of  the  defeated  faction.  It  looked  like 
certain  war  with  Chile  when,  in  the  autumn  of  1891,  American 
sailors  from  the  cruiser  Baltimore  were  killed  in  the  streets  of 
Valparaiso,  and  the  Chilean  foreign  minister  publicly  character 
ized  President  Harrison's  protest  to  Congress  as  an  "  errone 
ous  or  deliberately  incorrect "  statement.  But  the  firm  attitude 
of  our  government,  coupled  with  patience  and  considerateness 
in  the  negotiations,  brought  Italy  to  accept,  and  Chile  to  offer, 
the  apologies  which  closed  the  incidents. 

Blame's  popularity  was  enhanced  by  his  vigorous  administra-  732.  The 
tion  of  the  Department  of  State.    In  1891  there  were  rumors 
of  his  nomination  for  the  presidency  the  next  year.    Blaine  him-  Elaine 
self  gave  no  support  to  the  movement,  and  even  declared  early 


556       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

in  1892  that  he  was  not  a  candidate.  However,  three  days  be 
fore  the  Republican  convention  met  at  Minneapolis  (June  4, 
1892),  Elaine  suddenly  resigned  his  cabinet  position  in  a  curt 
note.  His  motives,  like  the  motives  of  his  conduct  in  1888, 
have  never  been  fully  known.  Illness,  tedium  of  the  cares  of 
office,  lack  of  sympathy  with  his  chief,  desire  for  an  eleventh- 
hour  nomination  for  the  presidency,  have  all  been  advanced  as 
the  causes  for  his  resignation.  At  any  rate,  he  received  only 
182  votes  in  the  convention  to  535  for  Harrison,  and  retired, 
much  broken  in  health,  to  his  Maine  home,  where  he  died  the 
following  January.  Elaine's  character  is  one  of  the  hardest 
to  estimate  in  all  our  history.  He  was  brilliant,  able,  genial, 
and  brave ;  but  there  persistently  appears  in  his  character 
and  deeds  a  mysterious  spot  of  moral  suspicion  that  will  not 
"out"  with  all  the  washings  of  friendly  biographers.  He 
could  be  mercilessly  clear  in  his  exposure  of  other  men ;  but 
in  his  revelation  of  self  there  was  always  a  suggestion  of  fog. 
On  the  whole,  he  •  was  our  most  prominent  political  leader 
between  Lincoln  and  Roosevelt. 

783.  The  As  the  presidential  campaign  of  1892  approached,  it  was  evi- 
party1St  dent  that  a  new  factor  of  great  importance  had  entered  our 
national  politics.  We  have  already  noticed  the  activity  of  the 
Grangers  and  the  Knights  of  Labor  in  the  seventies  and  the 
eighties.  About  1890  these  organizations  (expanded  already  into 
the  Farmers'  Alliance  and  the  American  Federation  of  Labor) 
united  to  make  a  compact  political  party.  They  held  a  national 
convention  at  Cincinnati  in  May,  1891,  with  over  1400  dele 
gates  from  32  states.  They  adopted  the  title  of  People's  party 
(familiarly  "  Populists "),  and  drew  up  a  radical  platform  de 
manding,  among  other  reforms,  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  the 
abolition  of  the  national  banks,  a  graduated  income  tax,  the 
government  ownership  of  railroads,  steamship  lines,  telegraph 
and  telephone  service,  and  the  election  of  United  States  sena 
tors  by  popular  vote.  The  next  year  they  assembled  at  Denver 
and  nominated  James  B.  Weaver  of  Iowa  for  president. 


TJie  Cleveland  Democracy  557 

Meanwhile  the  Democrats  were  in  a  quandary.    Cleveland  784.  cieve- 

,     .  ,     ^  ,      ,      ,  ,  .^  .  ,_,       land  reflected 

was  their  strongest  man,  but  he  had  bitter  enemies  among  the  in  l892 

machine  politicians  of  the  East,  like  Governor  David  B.  Hill  of 
New  York,  while  his  fearless  condemnation  of  free  silver  made 
him  an  impossible  candidate  in  the  eyes  of  the  Democratic 
managers  in  the  West.  But  the  very  qualities  which  disquali 
fied  Cleveland  in  the  eyes  of  the  politicians  commended  him  to 
the  people.  He  had  been  a  people's  President  in  1885  ;  he  be 
came  the  people's  nominee  in  1892.  In  spite  of  the  efforts 
of  the  Democratic  machine  politicians  to  secure  anti-Cleveland 
delegates  to  the  convention,  the  tide  of  popular  feeling  set 
stronger  and  stronger  toward  the  ex-President  as  the  day  of  the 
convention  approached.  He  was  nominated  on  the  first  ballot, 
and  the  following  November  was  elected  over  Harrison  by  277 
votes  to  145,  with  a  popular  plurality  of  about  400,000.  A  Dem 
ocratic  House  was  reflected,  and  the  Republicans  lost  their  long 
hold  in  the  Senate.  For  the  first  time  since  Buchanan's  day  a 
Democratic  administration  had  a  majority  in  both  branches  of 
Congress. 

For  the  first  time  also  since  the  election  of  1860  a  third  party 
figured  in  the  electoral  column.  Weaver,  the  Populist  candidate, 
carried  the  four  states  of  Colorado,  Idaho,  Kansas,  and  Nevada, 
receiving  22  electoral  votes  and  polling  over  1,000,000  popular 
votes.  The  significance  for  the  Democratic  party  of  this  radical 
movement  in  the  West  will  appear  when  we  study  the  presi 
dential  campaign  of  1896. 

PROBLEMS  OF  CLEVELAND'S  SECOND  TERM 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  other  American  president  in  times  of  785.  Diffl- 
peace  has  had  to  contend  with  such  harassing  problems  as  con- 


fronted  Grover  Cleveland  when  he  was  inaugurated  for  a  second  President 

Cleveland 
time,  March  4,  1893.    The  Treasury,  which  he  had  turned  over  in  1893 

to  President  Harrison's  secretary  four  years  earlier  with  a  bal 
ance  of  about  $100,000,000,  was  empty.    The  gold  reserve, 


5  5  8       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

maintained  by  the  government  to  protect  its  paper  money  in  cir 
culation,  had  sunk  to  the  danger  limit.  Throughout  the  country 
there  was  serious  industrial  depression,  due  to  uncertainty  as 
to  how  a  solid  Democratic  Congress  would  treat  the  tariff,  and 
to  apprehension  lest  the  radical  Populists  of  the  West  should  cap 
ture  the  Democratic  party.  Thousands  of  laborers  were  thrown 
out  of  employment  just  at  the  time  when  the  high  prices  fol 
lowing  the  McKinley  tariff  made  their  living  most  precarious ; 
and  agitators  were  ready  to  organize  the  discontented  into  a  cru 
sade  against  the  great  capitalist  interests,  the  railroads,  and  the 
protected  trusts. 

786.  The          The  most  immediate  problem  that  confronted  the  President 
state  of  the  J_1  . 

Treasury      was  the  condition  of  the  1  reasury.    Ever  since  the  resumption 

of  specie  payments,  in  1879,  it  had  been  the  policy  of  the  govern 
ment  to  keep  a  reserve  of  at  least  $100,000,000  in  gold  for  the 
redemption  of  any  of  the  $346,000,000  in  greenbacks  still  in 
circulation.  By  the  Sherman  Silver  Act  of  1890  the  government 
was  steadily  increasing  the  volume  of  its  paper  money  by  issuing 
certificates  to  the  value  of  the  silver  purchased.  The  green 
backs  and  silver  certificates  in  circulation  in  1893  amounted  to 
nearly  $500,000,000,  all  of  which  the  Treasury  considered  itself 
bound  to  redeem  in  gold  if  the  demand  were  made. 

787.  The          Now  it  is  a  well-known  economic  law  that  when  currency  of 

different  grades  of  value  exists  in  a  country,  the  cheaper  kind 
drives  the  other  out  of  circulation.  This  means  simply  that  if 
a  man  has  his  choice  between  paying  a  bill  with  dollars  that  he 
knows  will  always  and  everywhere  be  worth  100  cents  and  dol 
lars  which  he  suspects  may  sometime  or  somewhere  be  worth 
only  50  cents,  he  will  part  with  the  latter  and  save  the  former. 
In  spite  of  our  government's  efforts  to  maintain  a  "parity,"  or  a 
constant  ratio,  between  silver  and  gold,  silver  steadily  declined 
in  price,  and  the  value  of  the  silver  dollar  consequently  shrank. 
Banks  and  individuals  then  began  to  hoard  their  gold.  The 
yellow  metal  threatened  to  disappear  from  circulation.  Just 
before  the  passage  of  the  Sherman  Act  the  government  was 


The  Cleveland  Democracy 


559 


receiving  85  per  cent  of  its  customs  duties  in  gold ;  two  years 
later  less  than  20  per  cent  of  these  payments  were  made  in  gold. 
To  make  matters  worse,  the  uncertainty  and  depression  in  busi 
ness  made  foreigners  unwilling  to  invest  in  our  securities,  and  we 
had  to  ship  large  quantities  of  gold  abroad  to  pay  unfavorable 
trade  balances. 

Two  immediate  duties  were  before  President  Cleveland,  —  to  788.  The 
stop  the  further  purchase  of  silver,  and  to  replenish  the  Treasury  Sherman  Act, 

with  gold.    The   first  of  these  l893 
duties  was  accomplished  by  the 
repeal  of  the  Sherman  Act,  in  an 
extra  session  of  Congress  called 
in  the  late  summer  of  1893. l 

The  replenishment  of  the  gold  789.  The 
supply,  however,  proved  a  more  actions  witfc 
difficult  task,  which  occupied  the  J*  p<  Mor£an 
entire  administration.  Twice  dur 
ing  the  year  1894  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  sold  $50,000,000 
worth  of  bonds  for  gold,  without 
helping  matters  much.  For  the 
buyers  of  the  bonds  simply  pre 
sented  greenbacks  at  the  Treas 
ury  for  redemption,  to  get  the 
gold  to  pay  for  the  bonds.  They  thus  took  out  of  the  Treasury 
with  one  hand  the  gold  they  put  in  with  the  other.  Determined 
to  stop  this  "  endless-chain  "  process  of  the  withdrawal  and  the 
restoration  of  the  same  millions  continually,  Cleveland  early  in 
1895  summoned  to  the  White  House  Mr.  J.  Pierpont  Morgan, 
the  most  powerful  financial  figure  in  America.  Mr.  Morgan 
arranged  with  the  President  to  furnish  the  Treasury  some 
$65,000,000  in  gold  in  return  for  the  government's  4  per  cent 

1  This  repeal  passed  the  House  readily,  but  was  fought  bitterly  for  two  months 
in  the  Senate,  where  one  sixth  of  the  members  came  from  the  seven  "  silver 
states  "  of  the  West,  which  contained  less  than  2  per  cent  of  the  population  of 
the  country. 


Copyright,  Pach  Brothers 

J.  Pierpont  Morgan 


5  60      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

bonds.  The  price  Mr.  Morgan  charged  for  the  gold  secured  him 
the  bonds  at  a  considerably  lower  figure  than  the  public  were 
paying  for  them  at  the  time,  and  a  cry  went  up  from  the  Western 
Democrats  and  Populists  that  Cleveland  had  entered  into  an 
unholy  alliance  with  the  money  lenders,  and  was  squandering 
the  country's  resources  to  enrich  the  bankers  of  New  York  and 
London.  If  Mr.  Morgan  did  drive  a  hard  bargain  with  the 
government,  he  at  least  secured  an  actual  supply  of  gold  for  the 
Treasury  (one  half  the  amount  being  obtained  from  foreign 
bankers)  and  went  to  considerable  expense  to  prevent  the  ship 
ment  of  gold  abroad.  The  President  defended  himself  for  enter 
ing  into  this  private  bargaining  for  gold  on  the  ground  that  the 
state  of  the  Treasury  was  desperate  and  that  the  people  had 
twice  within  a  year  given  proof  of  their  unwillingness  to  part 
with  their  gold  hoardings  to  strengthen  the  credit  of  the  govern 
ment.1  Altogether  during  Cleveland's  administration  the  govern 
ment  issued  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $262,000,000  in  order  to 
attract  enough  gold  to  keep  the  reserve  up  to  the  $100,000,000 
mark.  The  election  of  1896,  which  was  fought  on  the  currency 
issue,  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  silver,  and  gold  came  out  of  hiding. 
790.  Thewn-  Although  Cleveland  was  elected  in  1892  chiefly  on  the  tariff 
Tariff ^Ti^  issue,  his  efforts  to  get  from  Congress  a  purely  revenue  tariff 
of  1894  were  no  more  successful  than  they  had  been  in  1888  (p.  537). 

William  L.  Wilson  of  West  Virginia  introduced  a  bill  in  Decem 
ber,  1893,  providing  for  the  removal  of  duties  on  all  raw  mate 
rials  (wool,  iron  ore,  coal,  lumber,  sugar)  and  a  considerable 
reduction  in  the  duties  on  manufactured  articles  (china,  glass, 
silk,  cotton  and  woolen  goods).  The  bill  promptly  passed  the 
House  by  204  votes  to  no,  but  when  it  reached  the  Senate 

1  Opinion  will  always  be  divided  on  the  wisdom  of  Cleveland's  action.  It  cost 
him  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  West,  but  it  satisfied  his  own  conscience.  He  con 
cludes  the  chapter  on  The  Bond  Issues  in  his  "  Presidential  Problems"  (1904) 
with  the  words,  "  Though  Mr.  Morgan  and  Mr.  Belmont  and  scores  of  others 
who  were  accessories  in  these  transactions  may  be  steeped  in  destructive  propen 
sities  and  may  be  constantly  busy  in  sinful  schemes,  I  shall  always  recall  with  sat 
isfaction  and  self-congratulation  my  association  with  them  at  a  time  when  our 
country  sorely  needed  their  aid." 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  561 

it  was  "held  up."  It  made  no  difference  that  the  Senate  was 
Democratic.  The  "  coal  senators  "  of  West  Virginia,  the  "  iron 
senators  "  of  Alabama,  the  "  sugar  senators  "  of  Louisiana,  the 
"  lumber  senators  "  of  Montana,  all  fought  for  the  protection  of 
their  "  interests."  Under  the  lead  of  the  Democratic  Senator 
Gorman  of  Maryland  (heavily  interested  in  the  sugar  trust)  the 
Wilson  Bill  was  "  mutilated  "  beyond  recognition  by  over  600 
amendments.  Only  wool  and  copper  were  left  as  free  raw  ma 
terials,  and  the  average  of  the  duties  was  as  high  as  under  the 
Republican  bill  of  1883.  It  was  still  a  "  protective  "  tariff.  The 
House  reluctantly  yielded,  to  save  a  deadlock,  but  President 
Cleveland  refused  to  sign  the  bill,  which  he  called  a  piece  of 
"party  perfidy  and  dishonor."  It  became  a  law  (July,  1894) 
without  his  signature.  The  history  of  the  Wilson-Gorman  Bill 
showed  that  the  trusts  were  firmly  intrenched  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  increased  the  clamor  of  the  radicals  that  the 
senators  be  elected  by  a  popular  vote. 

To  make  up  for  an  anticipated  loss  of  some  $50,000,000  in  791.  The 
tariff  duties,  the  Wilson  Bill  contained  a  provision  for  a  tax  of  1- 
2  per  cent  on  incomes  exceeding  $4000.  An  income  tax  rang 
ing  from  3  per  cent  to  10  per  cent  had  been  imposed  by  the 
federal  government  during  the  years  1861  to  1872,  to  help 
meet  the  tremendous  cost  of  the  Civil  War ;  but  the  income  tax 
in  time  of  peace  was  resisted  as  unconstitutional  and  inquisitorial 
by  the  wealthy  classes,  on  whom  its  burden  would  fall.1  In  May, 
1895,  the  Supreme  Court  decided,  by  a  vote  of  five  to  four  (re 
versing  its  decision  of  1880),  that  the  income  tax  was  a  direct 
tax  and  hence  could  be  levied  only  by  apportionment  among  the 
states  according  to  population  (Constitution,  Art.  I,  sect.  2,  clause 
3).  Such  apportionment  would  be  impossible,  as  the  wealth  of 
the  states  bore  no  fair  ratio  to  their  population.  This  decision 
exempted  the  wealth  obtained  from  rents,  stocks,  and  bonds 

1  When  we  think  how  small  a  percentage  of  the  people  of  our  land  even 
to-day  enjoy  an  income  of  $4000  a  year,  we  realize  that  the  income  tax  was  dis 
tinctly  a  piece  of  "  class  legislation." 


562      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

from  contributing  to  the  support  of  the  government,  while  al 
most  every  article  of  consumption  of  the  poor  laborer  was  taxed 
by  the  tariff.  It  still  further  stirred  the  radical  temper  of  the 
West.  The  Supreme  Court  was  decried  as  the  rich  man's  ally, 
and  the  revocation  of  its  power  to  pronounce  laws  of  Congress 
unconstitutional  was  demanded.1 

792.  coxey's       With  the  financial  and  tariff  policy  of  the  country  at  sixes  and 

sevens,  the  administration  was  still  further  harassed  by  serious 
labor  troubles.  The  industrial  depression  of  1893  brought  fail 
ures,  strikes,  and  lockouts  in  its  train.  The  winter  was  attended 
with  great  suffering  throughout  the  country,  and  tramps  and 
vagrants  swarmed  over  the  land.  An  "  army  "  of  the  unemployed, 
led  by  one  Jacob  Coxey,  marched  from  Ohio  to  Washington  to 
demand  that  Congress  issue  $500, 000,000  in  irredeemable  paper 
currency,  to  be  spent  in  furnishing  work  for  the  idle  by  improv 
ing  the  highways  all  over  the  Union.  The  "  invasion  "  of  Wash 
ington  by  "  Coxey's  army "  ended  in  a  farce.  As  the  men 
marched  across  the  lawn  of  the  Capitol  on  May-day  morning 
their  leaders  were  arrested  for  "  walking  on  the  grass,"  and  the 
men  straggled  away  to  be  lost  in  the  motley  city  crowd. 

793.  The  There  was  nothing  farcical,  however,  in  the  conflict  between 

s  capital  and  labor  which  broke  out  in  Chicago  that  same  month  of 
May.  The  Pullman  Palace  Car  Company  discharged  a  number 
of  employees,  and  cut  the  wages  of  the  rest,  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  suffering  from  "  hard  times."  But  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
the  company  was  paying  7  per  cent  dividends,  that  it  had  accu 
mulated  a  surplus  of  $25,000,000  on  a  capital  of  $36,000,000-, 
and  that  none  of  the  officers'  salaries  had  been  decreased,  the 
workers  could  not  see  that  the  company  was  suffering,  and  a 
committee  of  the  docked  men  waited  on  Mr.  Pullman  to  remon 
strate.  For  this  "  impertinence  "  three  men  on  the  committee 
were  discharged.  Then  nearly  all  the  employees  struck. 

1  There  is  now  (1911)  before  the  country  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  Con 
stitution,  giving  Congress  the  right  to  levy  a  tax  on  incomes  "  from  whatever 
source  derived."  Its  ratification  is  being  opposed  chiefly  in  the  Eastern  states, 
whose  wealth  would  have  to  bear  the  chief  burden  of  the  tax. 


The  Cleveland  Democracy 


563 


About  4000  of  the  Pullman  employees  were  members  of  the  794.  The  fed- 
powerful  American  Railway  Union,  an  organization  founded  in  !^ad  the°PS 
1893  under  the  presidency  of  Eugene  V.  Debs.     The  union  injunction 
took  up  the  matter  at  its  June  meeting  in  1894,  and  demanded 
that  the  company  submit  the  question  of  wages  to  arbitration. 
This  Mr.  Pullman  curtly  refused  to  do.    The  union  then  for 
bade  its  men  to   "  handle "  the    Pullman  cars.    The  boycott 
extended  to  twenty-seven  states  and  territories,  affecting  the 
railroads  from  Ohio  to  California.    But  the  dire  conflict  came  in 
Chicago.    Early  in  July 
only  six  of  the  twenty- 
three  railroads  entering 
the    city    were    unob 
structed.  United  States 
mail     trains     carrying 
Pullman  cars  were  not 
allowed  to  move.  Presi 
dent  Cleveland  ordered 
troops  to  the  lake  front 
in  Chicago,  and  an  in 
junction    was    issued 

,_,        r    i       i  Entrance  to  the  German  Building  at  the 

by    the    federal    court  World's  Fair 

ordering  the  strikers  to 

cease  obstructing  the  United  States  mails.  The  reading  of 
the  injunction  was  received  with  hoots  and  jeers.  Debs  had 
appealed  to  the  strikers  to  refrain  from  violence  and  the 
destruction  of  property,  but  they  could  not  be  restrained.1 
Trains  were  ditched,  freight  cars  destroyed,  buildings  burned 
and  looted/  At  one  or  two  points  it  became  necessary  for  the 
federal  troops  to  fire  on  the  mob  to  protect  their  own  lives. 

1  Especially  as  their  number  was  swelled  by  thousands  of  vagrant  ruffians 
and  "bums,"  who  had  been  attracted  to  Chicago  by  the  great  Columbian 
Exposition  of  the  preceding  summer.  This  so-called  "  World's  Fair"  of  1893,  in 
celebration  of  the  four-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of  America,  was  a 
veritable  fairyland  of  dazzling  white  buildings,  softened  by  fountains  and  lagoons. 
The  Exposition  cost  about  $35,000,000,  and  was  visited  by  over  20,000,000  people. 


564      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


795.  Conse 
quences  of 
the  strike 


796.  The 
discontent  of 
the  radical 
Democrats 


Debs  and  his  chief  associates  were  arrested  and  imprisoned  for 
contempt  of  court  in  not  obeying  the  injunction. 

The  strike  was  broken  by  the  prompt  action  of  the  govern 
ment,  but  it  left  ugly  consequences.  For  the  first  time  in  our 
history  federal  troops  had  fired  upon  American  citizens  to 
preserve  order,  and  American  citizens  had  been  imprisoned  in 
time  of  peace,  by  order  of  a  judge,  without  jury  trial  or  even 
court-martial.  Both  these  acts  seemed  harsh  and  tyrannical  to 
many  persons.  Governor  Altgeld  of  Illinois  took  the  President 
severely  to  task  for  sending  troops  into  the  state,  declaring  that 
"  Illinois  was  able  to  take  care  of  herself  ";  and  he  was  gener 
ally  supported  by  the  Populist  element  of  the  West,  while  even 
among  the  conservatives  of  the  East  there  was  grave  complaint 
of  the  injustice  and  danger  of  "government  by  injunction."1 
The  discontent  of  the  radicals  with  the  administration  was 
still  further  increased  when  the  Supreme  Court  handed  down  a 
unanimous  decision  upholding  the  sentence  of  the  Chicago  fed 
eral  judge  against  Debs,  just  one  week  after  its  condemnation 
of  the  income  tax  as  unconstitutional  (May  27,  1895). 

On  March  4,  1895,  a  call  went  out  from  some  "insurgent" 
congressmen,  addressed  to  the  Democrats  of  the  nation,  declar 
ing  that  the  policy  of  the  administration  was  not  that  of  the 
majority  of  the  party,  and  urging  the  radicals  of  the  West  to 
organize  and  take  control  of  the  Democratic  party.  The  crusa 
ders  were  ready,  —  radical  Democrats,  Populists,  National  Silver- 
ites ;  it  needed  only  a  leader  to  unite  them  into  a  compact 
army  against  the  money  lords  of  Wall  Street,  who,  they  believed, 
had  loaded  their  farms  with  mortgages  and  purchased  legis 
latures  and  courts  to  thwart  the  people's  will.  But  before  we 


1  By  an  "  injunction  "  a  judge  "  enjoins  "  certain  persons  not  to  commit  an 
act  which  he  has  defined  in  advance  'as  punishable.  If  the  person  disobeys  the 
judge's  order,  he  is  fined  or  even  committed  to  prison  for  "  contempt  of  court," 
instead  of  being  duly  tried  and  sentenced  for  the  act  itself.  The  judge  by  this 
procedure  becomes  both  the  accuser  and  the  punisher.  It  is  evident  how 
tyrannous  such  a  weapon  as  the  injunction  might  become  in  the  hands  of  a 
corrupt  or  cruel  judge. 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  565 

describe  the  great  battle  between  the  East  and  the  West  in 
the  election  of  1896,  we  must  turn  for  a  moment  to  foreign 
affairs  in  Cleveland's  second  administration. 

The  little  kingdom  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  in  the  mid-  797.  Foreign 
Pacific  had  for  many  years  harbored  American  residents,  who  intervention 
came  first  as  missionaries,  then  as  planters  and  merchants  to  jj  Hawaii, 
exploit  the  coffee  and  sugar  farms.  The  American  residents 
enjoyed  rights  of  citizenship  in  Hawaii,  with  the  franchise,  and 
occupied  high  offices.  Our  government  had  a  coaling  station  in 
the  Islands,  and  a  reciprocity  tariff  treaty,  negotiated  in  1875, 
admitted  some  grades  of  Hawaiian  sugar  to  the  United  States 
without  duty.  Ever  since  1854  there  had  been  talk  of  annexa 
tion.  Early  in  1893  the  new  Queen  Liliuokalani,  a  bitter  enemy 
of  the  whites  in  the  Islands,  was  deposed  for  attempting  to 
overthrow  the  Constitution.  A  provisional  government  was  set 
up  by  the  white  inhabitants,  and  the  United  States  minister,  John 
L.  Stevens,  protected  the  new  government  by  a  detachment  of 
troops  landed  from  the  cruiser  Boston.  The  Islands  were 
declared  a  "  protectorate  "  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Ameri 
can  flag  was  raised  over  the  government  buildings.  A  few  days 
later  a  treaty  of  annexation  was  sent  by  President  Harrison  to 
the  Senate  for  ratification  (February  15,  1893).  The  United 
States  was  to  assume  the  Hawaiian  debt  of  $2,000,000 
and  pay  the  deposed  queen  a  pension  of  $20,000  a  year.  But 
before  the  treaty  was  ratified  Congress  expired  and  Cleveland 
succeeded  Harrison  in  the  White  House  (March  4,  1893). 
Cleveland  withdrew  the  treaty  from  the  Senate,  and  after 
satisfying  himself  through  a  special  commissioner  to  Hawaii 
that  Stevens  had  acted  too  zealously  in  the  January  revo 
lution,  he  ordered  the  flag  to  be  lowered  from  the  state  build 
ings,  and  offered  to  restore  Queen  Liliuokalani  to  her 
throne  on  condition  that  she  should  pardon  all  the  Americans 
concerned  in  the  revolution.  When  the  queen  refused  to  abandon 
her  cherished  plans  of  vengeance,  President  Cleveland  dropped 
the  whole  matter.  He  was  abused  roundly  for  "  hauling  down 


566       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

the  American  flag  "  in  Hawaii,  but  he  had  followed  the  century- 
old  tradition  of  our  Republic  in  refusing  to  seize  by  force 
the  distant  possessions  of  weaker  nations  on  the  plea  of 
"  civilizing  "  them.1 

798.  The  That  the  President  lacked  neither  force  nor  courage  in  deal- 

Venezuelan       .  .,,     r  .  i 

boundary  dis-  mg  wltfl  foreign  nations,  however,  was  amply  proved  in  a  sen- 

pute  ous  controversy  with   Great  Britain  over  the  validity  of  the 

Monroe  Doctrine.  The  South  American  republic  of  Venezuela 
borders  on  the  British  colony  of  Guiana  (see  map,  p.  574).  A 
chronic  boundary  dispute  between  the  two  nations  assumed 
acute  form  in  1886,  when  Great  Britain  maintained  that  the 
line  of  her  frontier  included  some  23,000  square  miles  of 
territory,  containing  rich  mineral  deposits.  Venezuela  com 
plained  of  the  rapacity  of  her  powerful  neighbor,  and  diplomatic 
relations  between  the  countries  were  broken  off  (February, 
1887).  The  United  States,  by  the  Monroe  Doctrine  of  1823, 
had  guaranteed  the  integrity  of  the  Latin-American  republics 
by  declaring  that  the  western  continent  was  closed  to  any 
further  extension  of  the  European  colonial  system.  Our  State 
Department  offered  its  friendly  offices  to  Great  Britain  in 
arbitrating  the  disputed  boundary  line,  but  the  British  govern 
ment  rejected  the  offer.  Lord  Salisbury  regarded  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  as  an  antiquated  piece  of  American  bravado,  and 
declined  to  view  the  United  States  as  an  interested  party  in 
the  dispute.  Importuned  by  Venezuela,  our  State  Department 
again  and  again  begged  England  to  arbitrate  her  claims.  In 
February,  1895,  Congress  took  up  the  matter,  and  by  a  joint 
resolution  urged  the  same  policy.  Still  Lord  Salisbury  remained 
obdurate  ;  and  when  Secretary  Olney  in  a  rather  sharp  dispatch 
(July  20,  1895)  declared  that  the  United  States  was  "  practically 
sovereign  on  this  continent,"  and  that  it  would  "  resent  and 

1  The  provisional  government  maintained  itself  without  much  difficulty  until 
the  Republican  administration  which  followed  Cleveland  annexed  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  to  the  United  States,  by  a  joint  resolution  of  Congress  (July,  1898),  and 
later  made  them  a  fully  organized  territory  with  United  States  citizenship 
(April,  1900). 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  $67 

resist  any  sequestration  of  Venezuelan  soil  by  Great  Britain," 
the  English  prime  minister  again  replied  in  polite  terms  that 
the  dispute  was  none  of  our  business. 

But  the  American  people  believed  that  the  maintenance  of  799.  The 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  their  business.  In  December,  1895,  trine  upheld 
President  Cleveland  sent  a  message  to  Congress  recommending 
that  we  take  the  decision  of  the  boundary  between  Guiana  and 
Venezuela  into  our  own  hands,  "  fully  alive  to  the  responsibility 
incurred  and  keenly  realizing  all  the  consequences  that  may 
follow,"-  — in  other  words,  even  at  the  risk  of  war  with  Great 
Britain.  Both  Houses  of  Congress  immediately  adopted  the 
recommendation  by  a  unanimous  vote,  appropriating  $100,000 
for  the  expenses  of  a  boundary  commission.  The  President's 
message  and  the  action  of  Congress  took  the  British  people  by 
storm.  A  wave  of  protest  against  war  with  their  American 
kindred  swept  over  the  country.  Three  hundred  and  fifty  mem 
bers  of  Parliament  rebuked  Lord  Salisbury's  stubborn  attitude 
by  sending  a  petition  to  the  President  and  Congress  of  the 
United  States  that  all  disputes  between  the  two  nations  be 
settled  by  arbitration.  The  prime  minister  gave  way,  and  con 
sented  courteously  to  furnish  the  American  boundary  commis 
sion  with  all  the  papers  it  needed.  In  February,  1897,  a  treaty 
was  signed  at  Washington,  by  which  Great  Britain  agreed  to 
submit  her  entire  claim  to  arbitration  ;  and  on  October  3,  1899, 
a  tribunal  at  Paris  gave  the  verdict  (favorable  on  the  whole  to 
Great  Britain),  fixing  the  line  which  had  been  in  dispute  for 
nearly  sixty  years. 

The  defense  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  the  Venezuela  con-  800.  Dissen- 
troversy  was  the  only  official  action  of  President  Cleveland's  Democratic 
second  administration  (with  the  exception  of  the  opening  of  the  ranks 
World's  Fair  at  Chicago)  that  had  the  general  approbation  of 
the  country.    Denounced  by  the  capitalists  and  corporations  of 
the  East  for  his  attempt  to  lower  the  tariff,  and  by  the  Populist 
farmers  of  the  West  for  his  determination  to  maintain  the  gold 
reserve,  berated  by  the  labor  unions  for  his  prompt  preservation 


568      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


801.  The 
Democratic 
convention  at 
Chicago, 
July,  1896 


\ 


of  law  and  order  at  Chicago,  and  threatened  with  impeach 
ment  for  hauling  down  the  flag  which  he  believed  was  unjustly 
raised  in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  Mr.  Cleveland  must  have  felt 
relieved  as  the  time  of  his  deliverance  from  the  cares  of  office 
drew  near. 

The  convention  of  the  Democratic  party,  which  met  at  Chicago 
July  7,  1896,  proved  to  be  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  radicals 
of  the  West.  They  rejected  by  a  majority  of  150  votes  the 
resolution  of  the  Eastern 
"  moderates  "  commending 
the  administration  of  Grover 
Cleveland.  They  wrote  a 
platform  demanding  the  free 
and  unlimited  coinage  of 
silver  at  the  ratio  to  gold  of 
1 6  to  i  "  without  waiting  for 
the  aid  or  consent  of  any 
other  nation."  They  con 
demned  the  issue  of  bonds 
in  time  of  peace,  denounced 
government  by  injunction, 
and  demanded  enlarged  pow 
ers  of  the  federal  govern 
ment  in  dealing  with  the 
trusts.  The  choice  of  a  promi- 
minent  Eastern  candidate  for  nomination,  like  Senator  Hill  of! 
New  York,  or  ex-Governor  Russell  of  Massachusetts,  was  im 
possible  from  the  first.  Among  the  free  silverites  Richard  P. 
Bland  of  Missouri,  author  of  the  Silver  Law  of  1878,  seemed  to 
be  the  most  promising  candidate  until  William  Jennings  Bryan 
of  Nebraska  swept  the  convention  off  its  feet  by  an  oration 
filled  with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  crusader  in  a  holy  cause.  The 
silverites  made  him  the  man  of  the  hour,  "  the  savior  of  De 
mocracy,"  "  the  new  Lincoln."  He  was  nominated  on  the  fifth 
ballot  amid  scenes  of  the  wildest  enthusiasm. 


William  Jennings  Bryan 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  569 

Mr.  Bryan,  born  in  1860,  had  hardly  more  than  reached  the  802.  Bryan 
legal  age  of  eligibility  for  the  presidency.  He  was  a  self-made  a 
man,  of  Spartan  simplicity  of  tastes  and  unimpeachable  personal 
habits.  As  a  rising  young  lawyer  in  Nebraska  he  had  made  a 
remarkable  campaign  for  a  seat  in  Congress,  turning  a  Repub 
lican  majority  of  3000  in  his  district  in  1888  into  a  Democratic 
majority  of  nearly  7000  in  1890.  He  served  two  terms  in  Con 
gress,  then  returned  to  the  West  to  devote  himself  to  writing 
and  speaking  in  the  cause  of  free  silver.  His  opponent  in  the 
presidential  race  of  1896  was  Major  William  McKinley  of  Ohio, 
one  of  the  most  admirable  and  amiable  characters  in  our 
history.  McKinley  could  oppose  to  Bryan's  four  short  years  of 
public  service  a  well-rounded  career,  including  meritorious  serv 
ice  in  the  Civil  War,  fourteen  years  in  Congress,  and  two  terms 
as  Governor  of  Ohio. 

McKinley's  nomination  was  secured  and  his  campaign  man-  803.  "Mark" 
aged  by  "  Mark  "  Hanna,  who  was  the  very  incarnation  of  that  ^ance"  ^ 
spirit  of  commercial  enterprise  which  we  have  seen  creating  asent  of 
the  great  trusts  of  the  last  years  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Business  was  everything  for  Hanna.    "  You  have  been  in  politics 
long  enough,"  he  wrote  to  a  state  official  of  Ohio  in  1890,  "  to 
know  that  no  man  in  public  life  owes  the  public  anything."    If 
Major  McKinley's  finer  moral  sensibilities  were  hurt  by  such 
cynical  doctrines,  his  conviction  that  he  was  fighting  a  campaign 
for   the   preservation   of   our  national   credit   and    honor,   was 
enough  to  "make  him  pardon  the  use  of  the  millions  of  dollars 
which  Hanna,   "  the  advance   agent  of  prosperity,"  raised  to 
"  grease  the  wheels  "  of  the  Republican  machine.1 

The  campaign  was  fought  on  the  issue  of  free  silver.    The  804.  Argu- 

radical"  Democrats  demanded  that  the  government  should  take  ments  for  the 

free  coinage 
all  the  silver  presented  at  its  mints,  and  coin  it  into  legal  cur-  of  silver  at 

rency  at  the  ratio  of  sixteen  ounces  of  silver  to  one  ounce  of 

1  It  was  estimated  that  from  August  i  to  election  day  in  November  the  ex 
penses  of  the  Republican  campaign  were  $25,000  a  day.  Money  was  sent  by 
the  central  committee  into  every  doubtful  county  of  the  Union. 


History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

gold.  As  sixteen  ounces  of  silver  were  worth  in  the  open  market 
only  about  $11  in  1896,  while  one  ounce  of  gold  was  uni 
formly  worth  $20.87,  tne  silverites  demanded  that  our  govern 
ment  should  maintain  in  circulation  dollars  that  were  worth 
intrinsically  only  about  fifty  cents.1  Their  arguments  for  this 
apparent  folly  were  that  the  United  States  was  strong  and  in 
dependent  and  rich  enough  to  use  whatever  metal  it  pleased 
for  money,  without  regard  to  what  England,  France,  or  Germany 
did ;  that  the  supply  of  gold  did  not  furnish  sufficient  currency 
for  the  business  of  the  country  anyway,  and  that  what  there 
was  of  it  was  in  the  hands  of  bankers,  who  hoarded  it  to  in 
crease  its  value;  that  the  farmers  and  small  traders  conse 
quently  were  forced  to  pay  an  ever-increasing  tax  in  the  fruits 
of  their  labor  to  meet  the  interest  (reckoned  in  gold  values") 
on  their  mortgaged  farms  and  shops ;  that  the  Eastern  bank 
ers,  who  alone  had  the  gold  to  buy  government  bonds,  could 
control  the  volume  of  currency,  which  (since  the  repeal  of  the 
Sherman  Act  in  1893)  was  based  almost  entirely  on  the  na 
tional  bonds.  The  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  and  its  direct 
issue  to  the  people  by  the  government  would,  they  thought, 
break  up  this  monopoly  of  the  nation's  money  held  by  a  feu- 
rich  bankers  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 

805.  Bimet-  The  Republicans  and  the  "  sound-money  "  Democrats  were 
willing  to  admit  that  we  needed  more  currency,  and  favored 
"  international  bimetallism/'  or  the  use  of  both  gold  and  silver 
by  agreement  with  the  leading  commercial  nations  of  the  world. 
The  Republican  platform  pledged  the  party  to  work  for  such 
an  agreement.2  But  for  the  United  States  alone  to  adopt  the 

1  The  value  of  the  silver  "dollar''  of  371^  grains  sank  as  follows:  18/3, 

£1.004  I  l875>  £°-96  '  l885>  £°-82  '  l893»  £°-6° '  l89*>  ^"*9  (due  to  the  susPension 
of  silver  coinage  in  India  in  1893). 

a  Even  this  concession  could  not  keep  the  ranks  of  the  Republicans  intact. 
Several  silver  delegates  from  Colorado,  Utah,  Idaho,  Nevada,  South  Dakota, 
and  Wyoming,  including  four  United  States  senators  and  two  congressmen, 
seceded  from  the  convention  under  the  leadership  of  Senator  Teller  of  Colorado, 
who  had  «  been  at  the  birth  of  the  Republican  party,"  and  voted  for  every  one 
of  its  candidates  from  Fremont  to  Harrison. 


The  Cleveland  Democracy 


double  gold  and  silver  standard  would  he  to  make  us  the 
dumping  ground  for  the  silver  of  the  world,  and  so  ruin  our 
credit  that  we  should  not  be  able  to  sell  a  dollar's  worth  of 
our  securities  abroad. 

It  was  a  bitter  battle  between  the  Western  plowholder  and  806.  The 
the  Eastern  bondholder.    Bryan  made  a  whirlwind  campaign,  campaign  of 
traveling  18,000  miles  in  fourteen  weeks,  making  600  speeches, 
which  it  is  estimated  were  heard  by  5,000,000  Americans.    He 

won  thousands  of  con 
verts  to  the  doctrine  of 
free  silver,  but  was  not 
able  to  carry  the  country  in 
November.  In  the  largest 
presidential  vote  ever  cast 
(13,600,000)  McKinley 
won  by  a  plurality  of 
about  600,000.  Even  in 
McKinley's  home  state 
Bryan  polled  477,000 
votes  to  his  opponent's 
525,000.  The  electoral 
vote  (hardly  ever  a  fair 
index  of  the  sentiment  of 
the  country  at  large)  was 
271  to  176. 

The  election  of  1896  was  of  tremendous  importance  in  our  his-  807.  signifi- 
tory.  It  split  the  Democratic  party  into  two  irreconcilable  camps.1  campaign^ 
It  signaled  the  complete  victory  in  the  Republican  party  of  the  l896 
business  "  power  behind  the  throne  "  of  government.    Thou 
sands  of  Americans  were  ready  in  1896  to  vote  for  a  party  which 
represented  a  sane  opposition  to  the  growing  power  of  the  trusts, 
the  monopoly  of  coal,  oil,  and   lumber  lands,  the  nurture  of 
highly  prosperous  industries  by  a  protective  tariff  which  taxed 

1  Late  in  the  summer  the  «  gold  Democrats  "  held  a  convention  and  nominated 
General  John  M.  Palmer  for  President.    He  polled  only  134,645  votes. 


William  McKinley 


572       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

the  poor  man's  food  and  clothing,  and  the  shameless  influence 
of  railroads,  express  companies,  and  other  corporations  with  our 
legislatures.  But  the  true  "  people's  party,"  which  should  have 
solidified  to  combat  these  economic  evils,  was  led  astray  by  the 
glittering  oratory  of  the  silver  champions.  It  rallied  to  a  plat 
form  that  was  bitterly  sectional,  to  a  doctrine  that  was  economi 
cally  unsound,  and  to  a  leader  who  was  immature  and  untried. 
"  Lunacy  dictated  the  platform,"  said  a  Democratic  paper  in 
New  York,  "  and  hysteria  evolved  the  candidate."  Of  two  evils 
the  majority  of  Americans  believed  they  were  choosing  the  less 
in  voting  for  McKinley  on  Hanna's  "  business  platform."  But 
the  election  strengthened  the  hold  upon  our  country  of  the  great 
trusts,  whose  enormous  political  power  the  American  people  have 
come  fully  to  realize  and  are  to-day  taking  courage  to  attack. 


REFERENCES 

A  People's  President :  D.  R.  DEWEY,  National  Problems  (American 
Nation  Series),  chaps,  ii— viii ;  E.  L.  BOGART,  Economic  History  of  the 
United  States,  chaps,  xxvii,  xxix ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History  told  by 
Contemporaries,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  164,  165;  H.  T.  PECK,  Twenty  Years  of 
the  Republic,  chaps,  i,  ii,  iv ;  GROVER  CLEVELAND,  Presidential  Problems, 
chap,  i;  E.  B.  ANDREWS,  The  United  States  in  our  Own  Time,  chaps, 
xvii,  xviii;  J.  W.  JENKS,  The  Trust  Problem,  chaps,  x-xii ;  ADAMS  and 
SUMNER,  Labor  Problems,  chaps,  vi-viii ;  EDWARD  STANWOOD,  History 
of  the  Presidency,  chaps,  xxvii,  xxviii ;  C.  D.  WRIGHT,  Industrial  Evolu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  chaps,  xxiv,  xxvi ;  WILLIAM  MACDONALD, 
Select  Statutes  of  United  States  History,  1861-1898,  Nos.  in,  115. 

A  Billion-Dollar  Country  :  DEWEY,  chaps,  i,  ix-xv ;  BOGART,  chap, 
xxvi;  HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  166,  170,  178;  PECK,  chap,  v;  ANDREWS 
chaps,  xix,  xx;  STANWOOD,  chap,  xxix;  JAMES  G.  ELAINE,  chaps,  x-xi 
American    Tariff  Controversies   in   the  Nineteenth    Century,   chap,   xvi 
MACDONALD,  Nos.    i2o,  1 29;  J.   D.  LONG,    The  New  American  Navy 
Vol.  I,  chap,  i ;   FRANCIS  CURTIS,  The  Republican  Party,  chaps,  ix-x 
R.  T.  ELY,  Monopolies  and  Trusts,  chap,  vi ;  JAMES  BRYCE,  The  Ameri 
can  Commonwealth  (enlarged  edition  of  1911),  Vol.  II,  chap,  xciii. 

Problems  of  Cleveland's  Second  Term  :  DEWEY,  chaps,  xvi-xx  ;  Finan 
cial  History  of  the  United  States,  chap,  xix;  HART,  Vol.  IV,  Nos.  171, 


The  Cleveland  Democracy  573 

179,  194;  PECK,  chaps,  vii-xi;  ANDREWS,  chaps,  xxi-xxvi ;  CLEVELAND, 
chaps,  ii-iv ;  STANWOOD,  Presidency,  chaps,  xxx,  xxxi ;  Tariff  Contro 
versies,  chap,  xvii;  MACDONALD,  Nos.  98,  100,  102,  103,  117,  125,  126, 
130;  F.  W.  TAUSSIG,  The  Silver  Situation  in  the  United  States  (Publi 
cations  of  the  American  Economic  Association,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  i-uS)> 
J.  W.  FOSTER,  American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,  chap,  xi;  W.  J. 
BRYAN,  The  First  Battle,  chaps,  ix-xi,  xlix-1;  F.  J.  STIMSON,  The 
Modern  Use  of  Injunctions  (Political  Science  Quarterly,  Vol.  X,  pp. 
189-202) ;  W.  H.  HARVEY,  Coin's  Financial  School. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  The   Formation   of  the  Trusts  :  R.   T.   ELY,   Labor  Movement  in 
America,  pp.  1—38 ;  H.  D.  LLOYD,  Wealth  against   Commonwealth,  pp. 
373-388;    HENRY    SEAGER,   Introduction  to   Economics,  pp.  476-509; 
BOGART,  pp.  400-416;  DEWEY,  National  Problems,  pp.  188-202. 

2.  "Czar"    Reed:    DEWEY,    pp.    152-156;    PECK,    pp.    198-201; 
ANDREWS,  pp.  562-564;  M.  P.  FOLLETT,  The  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  pp.  185-214;  artbles  for  and  against  Reed's  methods, 
in  the  North  American  Review,  Vol.  CLI,  pp.  90-111,  237—250;  T.  B 
REED,   A  Deliberative  Body  (a  defense  in  the  North  American  Review, 
Vol.  CLII,  pp.  148-156). 

3.  The  New  South:  ANDREWS,  pp.  745-764;  BRYCE  (ed.  of  1911), 
pp.  491-511  ;  E.  S.  MURPHY,  Problems  of  the  Present  South,  pp.  1-27, 
97-103;  A.  B.  HART,   The  Southern  Soiith,  pp.  218-277;  editorials  in 
the  Outlook,  Vol.  LXXXVIII,  pp.  760-761  ;  Vol.  XCII,  pp.  626-629; 
the  Review  of  Reviews,  Vol.  XXXIII,  pp.  177-190;  series  of  articles, 
with   interesting   illustrations,    in   the    World"1*    Work,   Vol.  XIV   (the 
Southern  number,  June,  1907). 

4.  The  Knights  of  Labor :  ELY,  Labor  Movement,  pp.  75-88  ;  WRIGHT, 
pp.  245—263  ;  Reports  of  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission,  Vol. 
XVII,  pp.  3-24;  T.  V.  POWDERLY,  Thirty  Years  of  Labor,  pp.  186-196; 
The  Organization  of  Labor  (North  American  Review,  Vol.  CXXXV,  pp. 
118-126). 

5.  The  Venezuelan  Controversy:  J.  B.  HENDERSON,  American  Diplo 
matic  Questions,  pp.  411-442;  CLEVELAND,  pp.  173-281;  PECK,  412- 
436;  MACDONALD,  No.  126;  HART,  Contemporaries^  Q\.  IV,  No.  179; 
A.  D.  WHITE,  Autobiography,  Vol.  II,  pp.  117-126. 


CHAPTER  XX 

ENTERING  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 

THE   SPANISH  WAR  AND  THE  PHILIPPINES 

808.  The       Thrusting  its  western  end  between  the  two  great  peninsulas 

Cuba   °     of  Florida  and  Yucatan,  which  guard  the  entrance  to  the  Gulf 

of  Mexico,  lies  the  island  of  Cuba,  "  the  pearl  of  the  Antilles." 


ATLANTIC 

& 


The  West  Indies  and  Neighboring  Spanish-American  Republics 

From  the  time  of  its  discovery  by  Columbus  down  to  the  very 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century  Cuba  belonged  to  the  crown  of 
Spain.  It  had  remained  faithful  when  the  Spanish  colonies  in 
Central  and  South  America  had  taken  advantage  of  the  Napole 
onic  upheaval  to  revolt  (p.  239),  but  the  mother  country  had 
poorly  requited  the  fidelity  of  the  island  colony.  Corrupt  officials 

574 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  575 

squandered  the  revenues  of  Cuba,  raised  by  heavy  taxation,  and 
the  least  movement  of  resistance  was  ruthlessly  quelled  by  the 
trained  soldiery  of  Spain. 

The  fate  of  Cuba  was  always  a  matter  of  great  concern  to  the  809.  our 
United  States.  When  the  acquisition  of  Florida  and  Texas  gave  Cuba 
us  control  of  over  1000  miles  of  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  made  neces 
sary  the  protection  of  a  route  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
it  was  important  that  Cuba,  which  controlled  the  entrance  to 
the  Gulf,  should  not  be  in  the  hands  of  a  powerful  or  hostile 
nation.  Again,  when  the  westward  extension  of  slavery  was 
checked  by  the  plateaus  of  the  Rockies,  it  had  been  necessary 
to  curb  the  zeal  of  the  Southern  "  expansionists,"  who  were 
reaching  out  toward  Cuba  for  new  plantation  lands.1 

The  Civil  War  put  an  end  to  the  menace  of  a  new  Cuban  810.  Agita 
slave  state,  and  the  completion  of  the  Pacific  railroads  made  it 
unnecessary  to  guard  the  Isthmus  for  the  protection  of  the 
route  to  the  Far  West.  But  still  our  interest  in  Cuba  continued. 
Large  amounts  of  American  capital  were  invested  in  the  sugar 
and  tobacco  plantations  of  the  island  during  the  prosperous 
decades  which  followed  the  Civil  War.  Many  Cubans  were 
naturalized  in  the  United  States,  where  they  established  centers 
of  agitation  for  Cuban  liberty.  And  many  others,  after  natural 
ization,  returned  to  the  island  under  the  protection  of  their 
American  citizenship,  to  aid  their  brother  Cubans  in  throwing 
off  the  Spanish  yoke. 

An  especially  severe  insurrection  broke  out  in  1895.  The  811.  The 
insurgents  quickly  overran  nearly  all  the  open  country,  and 
the  Spanish  leader,  General  Weyler,  unable  to  bring  them  to 
face  his  150,000  troops  in  regular  battle,  resorted  to  the  cruel 
method  of  the  "  reconcentration  camps."  He  gathered  the  non- 
combatants  —  old  men,  women,  and  children  —  from  the  country 

1  The  student  will  recall  the  Ostend  Manifesto  of  1854,  in  which  three  Ameri 
can  ministers,  with  as  little  regard  for  international  courtesy  as  for  legal  authority, 
announced  the  "  right "  of  the  United  States  to  seize  Cuba  if  Spain  would  not 
sell  it  (p.  373). 


576      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

into  certain  fortified  towns,  and  herded  them  in  wretched  prison 
pens  under  cruel  officers,  where  tens  of  thousands  died  of  hun 
ger  and  disease.  The  cries  of  the  Cuban  sufferers  reached 
our  shores.  Scores  of  American  citizens  in  the  island  were  also 
being  thrust  into  prison,  and  millions  of  American  capital  were 
being  destroyed. 

812.  our  in-  Prudence  and  humanity  alike  forbade  the  continuance  of 
these  horrible  conditions  at  our  very  doors.  The  platforms  of 
both  the  great  parties  in  1896  expressed  sympathy  for  the 
Cuban  insurgents,  and  both  Houses  of  Congress  passed  resolu 
tions  for  the  recognition  of  Cuban  independence.  President 
McKinley  labored  hard  to  get  Spain  to  grant  the  island  some 
degree  of  self-government,  and  spoke  in  a  hopeful  tone  in  his 
message  to  Congress  of  December,  1897.  But  in  the  early 
weeks  of  1898  events  occurred  which  roused  public  indignation 
to  a  pitch  where  it  drowned  the  voices  of  diplomacy.  On  Feb 
ruary  9  a  New  York  paper  published  the  facsimile  of  a  letter 
which  had  been  stolen  from  the  private  correspondence  of  the 
-  Spanish  minister  at  Washington,  Senor  de  Lome.  The  letter 
characterized  President  McKinley  as  a  "  cheap  politician  who 
truckled  to  the  masses."  The  country  was  still  nursing  its  in 
dignation  over  this  insult  to  its  chief  executive,  when  it  was 
horrified  by  the  news  that  on  the  evening  of  February  15  the 
battleship  Maine,  on  a  friendly  visit  in  the  harbor  of  Havana, 
had  been  sunk  by  a  terrific  explosion,  carrying  two  officers  and 
266  men  to  the  bottom.  The  Spanish  government  immediately 
accepted  the  resignation  of  Senor  de  Lome  and  expressed  its 
sorrow  over  the  "  accident "  to  the  American  warship.  But  the 
conviction  (later  confirmed  through  the  examination  of  her  sunken 
hull  by  a  board  of  experts)  that  the  Maine  had  been  blown  up 
by  a  Spanish  mine  seized  on  our  people  with  uncontrollable 
force.  Flags,  pins,  buttons,  with  the  motto  "  Remember  the 
Maine!"  appeared  all  over  the  land.  The  spirit  of  revenge 
was  nurtured  by  the  "  yellow  journals."  Congress  was  waiting 
eagerly  to  declare  war. 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  577 

After  a  last  appeal  to  the  Spanish  government  had  been  met  813.  The  war 
with  the  evasive  reply  that  the  Cubans  would  be  granted  "  all  Aprii^1^ 
the  liberty  they  could  expect,"  McKinley  transferred  the  re 
sponsibility  of  the  Cuban  situation  to  Congress  in  his  message 
of  April  ii.1  Eight  days  later,  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
battle  of  Lexington  and  of  the  first  bloodshed  of  the  Civil  War, 
Congress  adopted  a  resolution  recognizing  the  independence  of 
Cuba,  demanding  the  immediate  withdrawal  of  Spain  from  the 
island,  and  authorizing  the  President  to  use  the  military  and 
naval  forces  of  the  United  States,  if  necessary,  to  carry  out  the 
resolution.  Congress  further  pledged  the  United  States,  by 
the  Teller  Resolution,  "  to  leave  the  government  and  control 
of  the  island  of  Cuba  to  its  own  people  "  when  its  pacification 
should  be  accomplished.  The  resolutions  of  April  19,  1898, 
were  a  virtual  declaration  of  war  against  Spain. 

Our   Navy  Department,  under  the  vigorous  administration  8l4.Dewey's 
of    Secretary    Long   and   Assistant   Secretary  Roosevelt,   was  Manila,^ 
thoroughly  prepared  for  the  crisis.    The  Far  Eastern  fleet  had  May  x»  l*& 
been  gathered,  under  Commodore  George  Dewey,  at  the  British 
station  of  Hong-Kong  on  the  Chinese  coast.    Scarcely  a  week 
after  the  war  resolutions  had  been  passed,  Dewey's  ships  in  their 
drab  war  paint  were  on  their  way  across   the  600  miles  of 
the  China  Sea  that  separate  Hong-Kong  from  the  Spanish  co 
lonial  group  of  the  Philippine  Islands.  The  last  night  of  April, 
with  a  bravery  like  that  of  his  old  commander,  Farragut,  at  New 
Orleans,  Dewey  ran  his  fleet  of  armored  cruisers  and  gunboats, 
under  fire,  through  the  fortified  passage  of  Boca  Grande  into 
Manila  Bay ;  and  early  on  May-day  morning  he  opened  fire 
on  the  Spanish  fleet  anchored  off  Cavite.    Five  times  Dewey 
led   his   squadron    up  and  down    the   line  of    Spanish  ships, 

1  There  has  been  a  diversity  of  opinion  on  the  extent  and  the  sincerity  of 
the  concessions  offered  by  Spain  in  April,  1898.  Only  recently  (May,  1910) 
Senator  Depew  of  New  York  has  revived  the  criticism  of  McKinley's  "weak 
ness"  in  yielding  to  the  popular  clamor  for  war.  and  asserted  that  the  terms 
offered  by  Spain  were  a  sufficient  basis  for  a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  whole 
Cuban  question.  But  such  a  view  has  found  little  or  no  support  among  American 
statesmen  and  historians. 


History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


815.  Cer- 
vera's  fleet 


pouring  into  them  an  accurate  and  deadly  fire,  then  drew  out  of 
range  to  give  his  grimed  and  hungry  gunners  their  breakfast.  He 
returned  a  few  hours  later  to  complete  the  work  of  destruction. 

By  noon  the 
entire  Spanish 
fleet  of  ten 
ships  was  sunk 
or  in  flames, 
the  land  bat 
teries  of  Cavite 
were  silenced, 
and  the  city  of 
Manila  lay  at 
the  mercy  of 
Dewey's  guns. 
The  Spanish 
had  lost  634 
men  and  offi 
cers.  On  the 
American  side, 
in  spite  of  the 
constant  fire  of 
the  Spaniards, 
not  a  ship  was 
hurt  nor  a  life 
lost.  It  was 
the  most  com 
plete  naval 
victory  in  our 
history. 


Eastern  Asia  and  the  Philippine  Islands 


While  the  victorious  fleet  lay  in  the  harbor  of  Manila,  waiting 
for  troops  from  the  United  States  to  complete  the  conquest  of  the 
Philippines,  the  Atlantic  squadron,  acting  under  Rear  Admiral 
William  T.  Sampson,  was  blockading  the  coast  of  Cuba.  A  strong 
Spanish  fleet  of  four  huge  armored  cruisers  and  three  torpedo 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 


579 


destroyers,  commanded  by  Admiral  Cervera,  had  sailed  westward 
from  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  on  April  29.  There  were  wild  stories 
that  Cervera's  fleet  would  shell  the  unfortified  cities  along  our 
coast,  and  some  timorous  families  even  abandoned  their  custom 
ary  summer  outing  at  the  seashore  for  fear  of  the  Spanish  guns. 
But  experts  knew  that  the  fleet  would  put  into  some  Spanish 
West  Indian  port  for  coal  and  provisions  after  its  journey  across 
the  Atlantic.  In  spite  of  Admiral  Sampson's  diligent  patrol, 
Cervera's  fleet  slipped  by  him  and  came  to  anchor  in  Santiago 


The  Dewey  Medal 

harbor,  where  it  was  discovered  by  the  American  lookouts,  the 
last  of  May,  and  immediately  "  bottled  up "  by  Sampson's 
blockading  squadron.1 

Meanwhile  about  16,000  troops  had  been  sent  from  the  816.  The 
American  camps  in  Florida  to  invade  Cuba,  under  the  command 
of  Major  General  Shafter.  The  most  picturesque  division  of  this 
army  was  the  volunteer  cavalry  regiment,  popularly  known 
as  "  Roosevelt's  Rough  Riders,"  made  up  of  Western  cow 
boys,  ranchmen,  hunters,  and  Indians,  with  a  sprinkling  of 

Harvard   and  Yale  graduates.     Theodore   Roosevelt  resigned 

t 

1  The  fleet  included  Commodore  Schley's  "  flying  squadron  "  (the  cruiser 
Brooklyn  and  the  battleships  Massachusetts,  Texas,  and  Iowa)  with  Admiral 
Sampson's  own  squadron  (the  cruiser  New  York,  which  was  his  flagship,  and 
the  battleships  Indiana  and  Oregon).  The  Oregon  had  just  completed  a  mar 
velous  voyage  of  14,000  miles  in  66  days,  from  San  Francisco  to  Florida,  around 
Cape  Horn.  She  arrived  and  joined  the  blockading  squadron  as  fresh  as  if  she 
were  just  from  the  docks,  "  not  a  bolt  nor  a  rivet  out  of  place." 


5  So       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


817.  The 


his  position  as  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  become  the 
lieutenant  colonel  of  the  Rough  Riders.  In  a  spirited  attack, 
through  tangled  jungles  and  over  rough  fields  strung  with  wire 
fences,  the  American  troops  charged  up  the  heights  of  San 
Juan  and  El  Caney  in  the  face  of  a  galling  fire  from  the 
Spanish  Mauser  rifles,  and  intrenched  themselves  on  the  hills 
to  the  east  of  Santiago  (July  i,  2).  But  General  Shafter  found 

the  defenses  of  the  city  too 
strong,  and  notified  Washing 
ton  that  he  should  need  re- 
enforcements  to  drive  Gen 
eral  Toral  from  Santiago. 
It  was  a  critical  position  in 
which  the  little  American 
army  found  itself  Sunday 
morning,  July  3,  on  the  hills 
above  Santiago.  Reinforce 
ments  would  be  weeks  in 
reaching  them.  Their  sup 
plies  were  inadequate  and 


The  Blockhouse  at  El  Caney, 
riddled  with  bullets 


bad.1  The  dreaded  fever  had 
already    broken    out    among 

them.    And  Cervera's  powerful  fleet  in  the  harbor  below  could 
easily  drive  them  from  the  heights  by  a  well-directed  fire. 

But  fortune  favored  our  cause.  That  same  Sunday  morning 
the  Spanish  ships  steamed  out  of  the  harbor  and  started  to  run 
July  3,  1898  westward  along  the  southern  shore  of  Cuba,  the  flagship 
Maria  Theresa  leading,  and  the  Vizcaya,  the  Colon,  the  Oquendo, 
and  the  destroyers  following.  Admiral  Sampson,  with  his  flag 
ship,  the  New  York,  was  absent  for  the  moment  conferring  with 
General  Shafter  on  the  critical  situation  of  the  American  army. 
Commodore  Schley,  on  the  Brooklyn,  was  left  as  ranking  officer. 

1  The  inadequacy  of  the  War  Department,  under  Secretary  Alger,  was  a  strik 
ing  contrast  to  the  efficiency  of  the  Navy  Department.  The  soldiers  were 
supplied  with  heavy  clothing  for  the  hot  Cuban  campaign,  and  with  inferior 
canned  meats,  which  General  Miles  called  "  embalmed  beef." 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  5&1 

Following  Sampson's  orders,  the  American  ships  closed  in  on 
the  Spaniards,  and  followed  them  in  a  wild  chase  along  the 
coast,  pouring  a  deadly  fire  into  them  all  the  while.  The 
Spaniards  replied,  as  at  Manila,  with  a  rapid  but  ineffectual  dis 
charge.  One  by  one  the  Spanish  cruisers,  disabled  or  in  flames, 
turned  and  headed  for  the  breakers,  until  the  last  of  them,  the 
Cristobal  Colbn,  bearing  the  proud  name  of  the  man  who  four 
centuries  earlier  had  discovered  for  Spain  the  hemisphere  whose 
last  remnant  was  now  slipping  from  her  grasp,  was  beached  by 
the  relentless  fire  of  the  Brooklyn  and  the  Oregon,  forty-five 
miles  west  of  the  harbor  of  Santiago.  Only  one  man  was  killed 
and  one  seriously  wounded  in  the  American  fleet,  while  less  than 
$10,000  repaired  all  the  damage  done  by  the  Spanish  guns.  But 
the  enemy's  fleet  was  completely  destroyed,  over  500  officers 
and  men  were  killed,  wounded,  or  drowned,  and  1700  taken 
prisoners.  The  Spanish  loss  would  have  been  far  greater  had 
not  the  American  sailors  rescued  hundreds  of  their  foemen, 
including  the  brave  Admiral  Cervera  himself,  from  the  burning 
decks  and  the  wreck-strewn  waters.  A  few  days  later  General 
Toral  surrendered  the  city  of  Santiago,  now  at  the  mercy  of 
Sampson's  guns,  and  turned  over  his  army  as  prisoners  of  war 
to  General  Shafter  (July  17). 

The  total  loss  of  two  fleets  and  an  army  brought  Spain  to  818.  The 
sue  for  terms.    The  preliminaries  for  the  treaty  of  peace  were  Manila, ° 
signed  in  Washington  and  hostilities  were  suspended  August  12.  ^8ufust  I3' 
News  of  the  peace  reached  Porto  Rico  just  in  time  to  stop 
General  Miles's  advance  against  the  Spanish  forces,  and  the 
governor  of  Porto  Rico  immediately  surrendered  the  island  to 
the  American  army.    But  before  the  news  of  peace  reached  the 
distant  Philippines  an  event  of  great  importance  had  occurred 
there.    Three    "relief   expeditions,"    comprising   over    10,000 
troops,  had  reached  the  Philippines  from  San  Francisco  by  the 
end  of  July,  and  on  August   13   these  troops,  supported  by 
Dewey's   squadron,   took   the   city   of   Manila  and   raised   the 
American  flag  over  the  governor's  palace. 


582       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

819.  Emiiio       Then  the  situation  began  to  grow  complicated.    The  Filipinos 

had  been  in  revolt  against  Spain  at  the  same  time  as  the  Cubans. 
In  1897  the  Spaniards  had  bought  off  the  leaders  of  the  revolt, 
including  one  Emiiio  Aguinaldo,  with  a  promise  of  $1,000,000. 
Aguinaldo  had  retired  to  Singapore.  While  at  Hongkong,  Dewey 
had  welcomed  Aguinaldo  as  an  ally,  and  later  had  him  conveyed 
back  to  the  Philippines  on  an  American  ship,  and  furnished  him 
with  arms  from  the  arsenal  at  Cavite.  The  Filipino  troops  had 
entered  Manila  with  the  Americans  on  August  13.  Aguinaldo 
now  claimed  that  Dewey  had  promised  to  turn  the  Philippines 
over  to  him  when  the  power  of  Spain  was  crushed,  but  there  is 
no  evidence  that  Dewey  ever  made  such  a  promise.  He  was 
too  discreet  a  man  to  think  of  putting  the  American  fleet  at  the 
disposal  of  a  tropical  insurgent.  Aguinaldo  refused  to  be  con 
sidered  merely  as  the  ally  of  the  American  troops,  and  although 
he  yielded  under  superior  force  to  the  American  general's 
order  to  withdraw  from  the  city  of  Manila  (September  15),  he 
still  conducted  himself  as  the  ruler  of  the  Islands.  He  organized 
a  Filipino  republic,  had  himself  proclaimed  dictator,  and  pre 
pared  to  maintain  his  position  by  force  of  arms. 

820.  Peace          So  the  American  and  the  Filipino  troops  were  facing  each 
December^,   other  in  ill-concealed  hostility  near  Manila,  when  the  terms  of 
1898  peace  between   Spain  and  the  United   States  were*  signed  at 

Paris,  December  10,  1898.  Spain  agreed  to  withdraw  from 
Cuba  and  to  cede  Porto  Rico,  Guam,  and  the  Philippine  Islands 
to  the  United  States.  As  the  war  had  been  begun  for  the 
liberation  of  Cuba,  and  as  the  city  of  Manila  had  not  been 
taken  until  the  day  after  the  peace  preliminaries  were  signed 
and  hostilities  suspended,  the  Spanish  commissioners  at  Paris 
were  unwilling  to  have  the  Philippines  included  in  the  peace 
negotiations  at  all.  But  President  McKinley  and  his  advisers 
saw  good  reasons  why  we  should  remain  in  the  Islands,1  and 

iTo  hand  back  the  Philippines  to  Spain,  so  argued  the  administration, 
would  mean  to  give  the  Filipinos  over  to  the  very  misrule  and  vengeance  from 
which  we  were  saving  the  Cubans  ;  to  withdraw  our  troops  would  mean  to 
leave  the  Islands  a  prey  to  internal  dissensions  or  to  some  strong  European 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 
Spain  consented  finally  to  give  them  up  for  an  indemnity  of 

$20,000,000. 

Before  the  treaty  was  ratified  by  the  United  States  Senate  821.  The 
or  the  Spanish  Cortes,  President  McKinley  ordered  General  Ssurrectfon, 
Otis,  commanding  at  Manila,  to  extend  the  authority  of  the  l899-i9°2 
United  States  over  all  the  island  of  Luzon,  and  the  Filipino 
Congress  replied  by  authorizing  Aguinaldo  to  make  war  on  the 
American  troops.  It  came  to  a  battle  before  Manila  on 
February  4,  1899.  The  superior  quality  and  training  of  the 
American  army  made  victory  over  the  Filipinos  in  the  open 
field  of  battle  very  easy ;  but  when  the  Filipinos  took  to  a 
guerrilla  warfare  among  their  native  swamps  and  jungles,  the 
wearying  task  of  subjugating  them  dragged  on  for  more  than 
two  years.  Even  the  tricky  seizure  of  Aguinaldo  himself  in  his 
mountain  retreat  by  a  party  of  American  scouts  disguised  as 
insurgents  (February,  1901),  and  his  proclamation  two  months 
later  acknowledging  American  sovereignty  in  the  Islands,  did 
not  end  the  insurrection.  It  was  not  until  April,  1902,  that 
the  last  insurgent  leader  surrendered  and  the  Philippines  were 
officially  declared  "  pacified." 

The  two  years'  war  in  the  Philippines  was  carried  on  against  822.  The 
the  vigorous  protest  of  a  number  of  the  recognized  leaders  of 
political  and  ethical  thought  in  America.  These  men  were 
called  "  anti-imperialists,"  because  they  saw  in  the  acquisition 
of  tropical  colonies,  which  could  never  become  states  of  the 
Union,  and  in  the  war  to  subjugate  the  native  inhabitants  of 
those  colonies,  the  abandonment  of  the  principles  of  freedom 
and  self-government  on  which  our  republic  was  founded. 
President  McKinley  was  invested  by  Congress  (March  2,  1901) 
with  "  all  the  military,  civil,  and  judicial  powers  necessary  to 
govern  the  Philippine  Islands,"  —  an  authority  like  that  of  a 
Roman  Emperor  rather  than  of  the  President  of  a  free 
republic.  Our  army  was  rapidly  increased  fivefold  in  the 

power.  Besides,  our  trade  interests  in  China  and  Japan  called  us  to  take  a  strong 
position  in  the  Orient. 


5  84      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

"Islands  (from  10,000  troops  in  August,  1898,  to  54,000  in 
May,  1900),  and  during  the  severest  period  of  the  insurrection 
(May,  i9oo-June,  1901)  there  were  1026  "contacts,"  or  petty 
battles,  with  a  loss  to  the  Americans  of  about  1000  men 
killed,  wounded,  and  missing.  Moreover,  the  exasperating 
method  of  guerrilla  fighting  practiced  by  the  Filipinos,  with  its 
barbarous  details  of  ambush,  murder,  treachery,  and  torture, 
tempted  the  American  soldiers  to  resort  at  times  to  undue 
cruelty.  The  whole  business  was  sickening,  even  to  those  who 
believed  that  it  had  to  be  done  with  all  the  unrelenting  firmness 
that  our  generals  displayed ;  while  the  anti-imperialists  taunted 
the  administration  with  having  converted  the  war,  which  was 
begun  as  a  noble  crusade  for  the  liberation  of  the  Cuban, 
into  a  diabolical  campaign  for  the  enslavement  of  the  Filipino. 

823.  The  ad-       For  all  that,  the  country  at  large  supported  the  policy  of  the 
indorsed TnU    McKinley  administration.    The  election  of  1900,  held  during 
the  election     ^g  insurrection,  was  fought  chiefly  on  the  issue  of  "imper 
ialism,"  1  and  McKinley  defeated  Bryan  by  292  electoral  votes 
to  155,  with  a  popular  majority  of  nearly  1,000,000.    The  vote 
was  the  verdict  of  the  American  people  that  the  situation  in  the 
Philippines  must  be  accepted  as  our  "  manifest  destiny,"  or,  in  the 
words  of  Senator  Spooner,  as  "  one  of  the  bitter  fruits  of  war." 

824.  ourgov-       President  McKinley  used  his  extraordinary  powers  of  govern- 
the^Miip-       ment  in  the  Philippines  with  admirable  moderation  and  wisdom, 
pines  ^s  SOon  as  the  force  of  the  insurrection  was  broken,  he  appointed 

Judge  William  H.  Taft  as  civil  governor  (July  4,  1901),  with  a 
commission  of  four  other  experts,  to  administer  the  depart 
ments  of  commerce,  public  works,  justice,  finance,  and  education 
in  the  Islands.  Native  Filipinos  were  given  a  share  in  the  local 
government  of  the  provinces,  and  three  Filipino  members  were 
soon  added  to  the  commission.  Under  Governor  Taft's  strong 

*At  the  Democratic  national  convention  at  Kansas  City,  large  placards 
were  displayed  with  the  inscription  :  "  Lincoln  abolished  slavery.  McKinley  has 
restored  it."  A  huge  American  flag  was  floated  from  the  roof  girders  of  the 
convention  hall,  edged  with  the  motto,  t(  The  flag  of  the  republic  forever,  of  an 
empire  never." 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 


535 


and  sympathetic  administration  the  Islands  recovered  rapidly 
from  the  effects  of  the  war.  Roads  and  bridges  were  built, 
harbors  and  rivers  improved,  modern  methods  of  agriculture 
introduced,  commerce  and  industry  stimulated.  The  American 
government  purchased  of  the  friars  some  400,000  acres  of 
Church  lands  for  $7,200,000,  which  it  sold  to  the  natives  on 
easy  terms  ;  and  sent  hundreds  of  teachers  to  the  Philippines  to 
organize  a  system  of  modern  education.  A  census  of  the 
Islands  was  completed  in  1905,  showing  a  population  of 
7,635,426,  of  whom  647,740 
belonged  to  savage,  or 
"  head-hunting,"  tribes.  Two 
years  after  the  census  was 
taken,  an  election  was  held 
for  a  Philippine  National  As 
sembly,  to  share,  as  a  lower 
House,  with  the  commission 
appointed  by  the  President 
in  the  government  of  the 
Islands.  The  Assembly  con 
vened  in  October,  1907,  ex- 
Governor  Taft  (then  Secre 
tary  of  War)  visiting  the 
Orient  to  assist  at  the  in- 


A  Filipino  Girl  weaving 


augural  ceremonies.  The  professed  policy  of  the  Republican 
party,  which  has  been  in  power  ever  since  the  Spanish  War, 
is  to  give  the  Filipinos  self-government  and  independence 
"  when  they  are  fit  for  it ";  but  there  is  little  likelihood  that 
having  once  learned  the  difficult  and  expensive  art  of  colonial 
government l  we  shall  part  with  so  rich  and  populous  a  domain 
as  the  Philippine  Islands,  or  that,  having  entered  with  the 

1  Secretary  of  War  Root  estimated  that  the  cost  of  the  acquisition  of  the 
Philippines  (1898-1902)  was  $169,853,512,  exclusive  of  the  $20,000,000  purchase 
money.  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson,  a  distinguished  authority  on  economics  and  the 
leader  of  the  anti-imperialists,  claimed  that  $1,000,000,000  is  not  too  high  an 
estimate  of  the  cost  of  the  Islands  to  the  United  States  up  to  1904. 


586      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


825.  The 
organization 
of  the  Cuban 
republic, 
1900-1901 


826.  Porto 
Rico  a  colo 
nial  territory 


European  nations  into  the  game  of  world  politics  we  shall 
abandon  one  of  the  finest  strategic  posts  in  the  Far  East. 

The  reorganization  of  Cuba  proceeded  more  smoothly.  On 
January  i,  1899,  Spain  withdrew  her  civil  and  military  authority 
from  the  island,  leaving  it  under  a  military  governor  appointed 
by  President  McKinley.  In  November,  1900,  a  convention  of 
Cubans  drew  up  a  constitution  for  a  republic,  closely  patterned 
on  that  of  the  United  States.  Congress  established  a  mild  sort 
of  "  protectorate  "  over  Cuba  by  compelling  the  convention  to 
incorporate  in  the  constitution  certain  clauses  known  as  the 
"Platt  Amendment."  They  provided  (i)  that  Cuba  should 
never  permit  any  foreign  power  to  colonize  or  control  any 
part  of  the  island,  or  impair  in  any  way  its  independence; 
(2)  that  Cuba  should  not  incur  any  debt  which  the  ordinary 
revenues  of  the  island  could  not  carry;  (3)  that  Cuba  should 
sell  or  lease  certain  coaling  stations  to  the  United  States ; 
and  (4)  that  we  might  intervene  in  Cuba,  if  necessary,  to 
maintain  a  government  adequate  for  the  protection  of  life, 
property,  and  individual  liberty.  When  the  Platt  Amendment 
was  duly  adopted,  the  Cubans  were  allowed  to  proceed  with 
their  elections.  On  May  20, 1902,  General  Wood  turned  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  island  over  to  its  first  president,  Estrada  Palma, 
and  Cuba  took  her  place  among  the  republics  of  the  world.  * 

Porto  Rico  was  organized  (April,  1900)  as  a  sort  of  com 
promise  between  a  colony  and  a  territory  of  the  United  States. 
A  governor  and  a  council  of  eleven  (including  five  Porto 
Ricans)  are  appointed  by  the  President,  and  a  legislature  of  35 
members  is  elected  by  the  natives.  The  council  has  full  charge 
of  the  administration  of  the  island,  and  sitting  as  an  upper 

1  Under  the  Platt  Amendment  we  were  obliged  to  take  temporary  charge 
of  the  government  of  Cuba  from  1906  to  1909  on  account  of  factional  strife 
in  the  island  and  the  resignation  of  President  Palma.  We  have  rendered  ines 
timable  services  to  Cuba  in  the  way  of  education  and  sanitation.  Yellow  fever, 
formerly  the  scourge  of  the  island,  has  been  stamped  out,  and  Havana  has  been 
converted  from  one  of  the  filthiest  and  deadliest  cities  of  the  Western  Hemi 
sphere  to  one  of  the  cleanest  and  most  sanitary.  We  spent  over  $10,000,000  in 
the  sanitation  of  Cuba. 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 

House  can  veto  the  acts  of  the  native  legislature.  The  island, 
while  under  the  protection  of  our  laws  and  forming  a  customs 
district  of  the  United  States,  does  not  enjoy  complete  self- 
government  or  have  the  prospect  of  becoming  a  state  in  the 
Union.  Its  million  inhabitants  of  mixed  Spanish,  Indian,  and 
negro  blood  are  not  qualified  for  the  responsibilities  of  an 
American  commonwealth. 

Thus  while  our  flag  was  raised  in  the  West  Indies  and  in  the  827.  The 
distant  islands  of  the  Pacific,  our  Constitution  was  not  extended  does8 not  «foi- 
in  full  force  to  the  new  possessions.    Congress,  as  we  have  seen,  low  the  fla& " 
turned  the  administration  of  the  Philippines  over  absolutely  to 
President  McKinley,  and  devised  a  new  form  of  government  for 
Porto  Rico.    Furthermore,  by  the  famous  "  Insular  Cases  "  of 
May,  1901,  the  Supreme  Court  decided  that  Congress  might  im 
pose  a  tariff  duty  on  the  products  coming  from  those  posses 
sions,  thus  treating  them  as  foreign  countries.1 

The  Spanish  War,  with  the  resultant  acquisition  of  colonial  828.  The 
possessions  in  the  tropics,  marks  a  momentous  epoch  in  our  anTpochTn1 
history.    During  the  twenty-five  years  preceding  the  McKinley  our  history 
administration  our  State  Department  played  but  a  minor  role. 
The  question  of  the  seal  fisheries  in  Bering  Sea,  or  of  the  control 
of  a  half-civilized  king  in  the  Samoan  Islands,  on  which  Elaine 
exercised  his  vigorous  ability,  seem  rather  petty  now ;  and  even 
the  serious  Venezuelan  boundary  dispute  with  Great  Britain  was 
only  an  episode  in  the  great  absorbing  questions  of  finance,  the 
tariff,  and  labor  agitation,  which  filled  the  second  administra 
tion  of  Grover  Cleveland.    But  with  the  closing  years  of  the 

1  The  refusal  of  Congress,  at  the  dictation  of  the  sugar  and  tobacco  trusts,  to 
admit  the  Cuban  and  Philippine  products  free  of  duty  has  retarded  the  develop 
ment  of  those  islands  considerably  and  counterbalanced  much  of  the  good  work 
done  by  our  administrators,  engineers,  and  educators  there.  In  1903  President 
Roosevelt  induced  Congress  to  make  a  20  per  cent  reduction  in  the  Cuban  sugar 
tariff ;  and,  as  a  result,  our  trade  with  Cuba  grew  from  $60,000,000  in  1902  to 
$124,000,000  in  1905.  Under  President  Taft's  insistent  efforts  Congress  has 
finally  (by  the  Payne-Aldrich  Bill  of  1909)  granted  the  Philippines  free  trade 
in  all  products  except  rice,  sugar,  and  tobacco,  and  has  allowed  even  consider 
able  amounts  of  the  last  two  commodities  to  come  in  free  of  duty. 


588       History  of  tJie  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


century  the  nation  turned  to  new  fields.  Our  army  and  navy 
became  conspicuous,  and  began  to  absorb  appropriations  reach 
ing  into  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  annually.  Our  atten 
tion  was  drawn  to  the  interests  of  colonizing  nations,  the  trade 
of  distant  lands,  and  the  fate  of  the  old  empires  of  the  East. 
Our  new  possessions  in  the  Pacific  and  our  concern  in  the 


"For  PAST  WARS 

and 

PREPARATION 
FOR,  WAR, 

$45o,ooo,ooo1 


for  all  other 
purposes 

$195,000,000 


The  Cost  of  War  i 
How  our  national  income  of  #643,000,000  was  spent  in  1910 

Orient  gave  great  impetus  to  the  development  of  our  west 
ern  coast,  and  made  imperative  the  immediate  construction 
of  the  long-planned  canal  through  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 
England  had  been  our  traditional  enemy  since  the  days  of  the' 
Revolutionary  War,  but  her  cordial  support  of  our  cause  in 
the  war  with  Spain,  when  all  the  other  nations  of  western 

1  The  cost  of  armed  peace  in  the  eight  years  1902-1910  increased  by  more 
than  #1,000,000,000  over  the  cost  in  the  eight  years  preceding  the  Spanish 
War.  This  eight-year  increase  exceeds  the  national  debt  by  over  #150,000,000; 
exceeds  the  entire  budget  of  the  United  States  for  the  year  1910-1911 ;  is  over 
double  the  estimated  cost  of  replanting  the  56,000,000  acres  of  denuded  forest 
lands  in  the  United  States ;  is  nearly  three  times  the  estimated  cost  of  the 
Panama  Canal.  What  we  spend  in  a  single  year  on  the  engines  of  war  would 
go  far  toward  crushing  out  the  "  white  plague  "  of  consumption,  which  destroys 
a  hundred  thousand  lives  in  our  land  every  year. 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 

Europe  desired  and  predicted  a  Spanish  victory,1  won  our 
hearty  friendship,  and  roused  'in  the  breasts  of  statesmen  of 
both  countries  the  prophetic  hope  that  the  two  great  Anglo- 
Saxon  nations  together,  through  their  colonies  and  their  fleets, 
may  control  the  destinies  of  the  world.2 

Only  a  few  months  after  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  with  829.  our  in- 
Spain  there  came  a  striking  proof  of  our  new  position  in  the  11  * 


affairs  of  the  world.    An  association  of  men  in  China  known  as  The  Boxer 

rising,  1900 
the  "  Boxers,"  resenting  the  growth  of  foreign  influence  in  their 

country,  gained  control  of  the  territory  about  Peking  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1900,  and,  with  the  secret  sympathy  of  the  Empress  Dow 
ager  of  China  and  many  of  the  high  officials,  inaugurated  a  reign 
of  terror.  The  foreign  legations  were  cut  off,  and  the  German 
minister  was  murdered  in  broad  daylight  in  the  street.  The  rest 
of  the  foreign  diplomats,  with  their  staffs  and  their  families,  to  the 
number  of  four  hundred,  took  refuge  in  the  British  legation, 
where  they  were  besieged  for  two  months  by  a  force  of  several 
thousand  armed  men,  including  troops  from  the  imperial  army. 
Sixty-five  of  the  besieged  party  were  killed  and  135  wounded 
before  the  relief  army,  composed  of  American,  British,  French, 
German,  Italian,  and  Japanese  troops,  fought  its  way  up  from 
the  coast  and  captured  the  city  of  Peking.  We  were  in  a  posi 
tion,  by  virtue  of  our  occupation  of  the  Philippines,  to  furnish 
5000  troops  promptly  and  to  take  a  leading  part  in  the  rescue  of 
the  legations  at  Peking  ;  and  when  our  able  Secretary  of  State, 
John  Hay,  took  the  initiative  in  dealing  with  the  question  of 

1  The  friendly  spirit  of  England  was  especially  shown  in  the  conduct  of  the 
fleets  in  Manila  bay.   The  German  admiral,  Von  Diederich,  hectored  Dewey  by 
unfriendly  demonstrations,  and  would  have  effected  a  combination  of  the  Euro 
pean  warships  to  attempt  to  drive  Dewey  from  the  bay  or  to  frustrate  his  bombard 
ment  of  Manila,  had  not  the  British  admiral  openly  declared  his  sympathy  for 
the  American  cause.     When  the  news  of  Dewey's  victory  reached  London, 
American  flags  were  hung  in  the  streets  and  «  The  Star  Spangled  Banner  "  was 
played  in  the  theaters  and  music  halls. 

2  The  cordial  relations  of  the  two  great   sister  nations  were   still  further 
strengthened  by  the  signature  at  Washington,  August  3,  1911,  of  an  arbitration 
treaty,  pledging  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  to  submit  all  controversies 
to  the  Hague  tribunal  for  peaceful  settlement. 


590      History  of  the  Reptcblic  since  the  Civil  War 

the  adjustment  of  the  outrage  and  the  punishment  of  China,  he 
won  the  respectful  cooperation  of  the  courts  of  Europe.1 

830.  Anew         At  the  same  time  that  they  opened  these  new  vistas  of  our 
adjustment  of          .  .  . 

domestic         national  destiny  the  closing  years  of  the  century  seemed  to  settle 

many  of  the  domestic  problems  which  had  vexed  us  since  the 
Civil  War.  The  Dingley  tariff  bill  of  1897  quickly  and  quietly 
restored  even  the  slight  reduction  made  by  the  Wilson-Gorman 
Act  of  1894,  and  fixed  our  tariff  for  a  dozen  years.  The  dis 
covery  of  large  deposits  of  gold  in  the  Klondike  region  of  Alaska 
in  August,  1896  (at  the  very  moment  when  Mr.  Bryan  was  mak 
ing  his  whirlwind  campaign  for  free  silver),  together  with  the 
opening  of  new  gold  mines  in  South  Africa,  expanded  the  volume 
of  the  world's  currency  sufficiently  to  make  silver  coinage  a  dead 
issue.  A  marvelous  burst  of  industrial  activity  following  the 
Spanish  War,  combined  with  abundant  corn  and  wheat  crops, 
gave  employment  to  thousands  who  were  out  of  work,  and 
enabled  the  farmers  of  the  West  in  many  cases  to  pay  off  their 
mortgages  and  have  a  balance  left  with  which  to  buy  automobiles. 
Finally,  the  Spanish  War  healed  the  last  traces  of  ill  feeling  be 
tween  North  and  South,  when  the  men  from  Dixie  and  the  men 
from  Yankee  land  fought  shoulder  to  shoulder  under  Colonel 
Roosevelt  of  New  York  or  "  little  Joe  "  Wheeler  of  Alabama. 

831.  The  For  better  or  worse  we  had  begun  a  new  policy  of  expansion 
among  the*™  and  entered  into  the  race  for  colonial  supremacy  and  world  trade, 
world  powers    ^fter  warning  the  nations  of  Europe  away  from  the  Western 

Hemisphere  for  nearly  a  century,  we  had  now  ourselves  seized  on 
possessions  in  the  Eastern  Hemisphere.  We  had  inaugurated  gov 
ernments  strange  to  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  our  Constitution. 

1  The  aged  senator,  John  Sherman,  was  made  Secretary  of  State  by  McKinley 
to  make  a  place  in  the  Senate  for  "  Mark  "  Hanna.  Sherman  was  unable  to  man 
age  the  trying  negotiations  with  Spain  and  gave  way  to  Judge  Day,  who  in  turn 
resigned,  to  head  the  Peace  Commission  in  Paris,  December,  1898.  John  Hay, 
our  ambassador  to  England,  succeeded  him,  and  proved  to  be  one  of  the  ablest,  if 
not  the  ablest,  of  our  Secretaries  of  State.  His  wisdom  and  tact  preserved  the 
integrity  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  with  the  principle  of  the  "  open  door,"  or  equal 
trade  privileges  for  all  nations,  at  a  time  when  the  European  powers  were  ready  in 
anger  and  revenge  to  break  up  the  empire  and  unchain  war  in  the  East. 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  59 l 

We  had  voted  down  by  large  majorities  the  counsel  of  the  men 
who  urged  us  to  return  to  the  old  order,  and  had  accepted  as 
the  call  of  our  "  manifest  destiny  "  the  summons  to  "  enlarge 
the  place  of  our  habitation."  We  had  no  longer  the  choice 
whether  or  not  we  should  play  a  great  part  in  the  events  of 
the  world.  The  only  question  was,  in  the  words  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  "  whether  we  should  play  that  part  well  or  ill." 

THE  ROOSEVELT  POLICIES 

When  President  McKinley  was  inaugurated  a  second  time,  832.  our 
on  March  4,  1901,  the  country  was  at  the  flood  tide  of  pros- 
perity.  Capital,  which  was  timidly  hoarded  during  the  uncertain 
years  of  Cleveland's  administration,  had  come  out  of  hiding  at 
the  call  of  Hanna  and  the  other  "  advance  agents  of  prosperity." 
The  alliance  between  politics  and  business  was  cemented.  Trusts 
were  organized  with  amazing  rapidity  and  on  an  enormous  scale. 
Up  to  the  Spanish  War  there  existed  only  about  60  of  these 
great  business  combinations  with  a  capital  ranging  from  $1,000,- 
ooo  to  $5,000,000,  but  the  years  1899-1901  saw  the  formation 
of  183  new  trusts  with  a  total  capitalization  of  $4,000,000,000, 
—  an  amount  of  money  equal  to  one  twentieth  of  the  total  wealth 
of  the  United  States,  and  four  times  the  combined  capital  of  all 
the  corporations  organized  between  the  Civil  War  and  Cleveland's 
second  administration. 

The  statistics  published  from  year  to  year  by  our  Census  and 
Treasury  Bureaus  revealed  such  gains  in  population,  production, 
and  commerce  that  the  imagination  was  taxed  to  grasp  the 
figures,  and  even  the  most  sanguine  prophecies  of  prosperity 
were  in  a  few  months  surpassed  by  the  facts.  From  the  in 
auguration  of  Washington  to  the  inauguration  of  McKinley  the 
excess  of  our  exports  over  our  imports  was  $356,000,000, 
but  in  a  single  year  of  McKinley's  administration  the  excess 
reached  $664,000,000.  By  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century 
we  were  mining  230,000,000  of  the  720,000,000  tons  of  the 


592       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


833.  The" 
assassination 
of  McKinley, 
September  6, 
1901 


Jiflj-sttaife  (it^ai  A  %  »  Siata  of  ^mrira; 

&1  tit  Sami.  *re»imi. 


world's  coal,  25,000,000  of  its  79,000,000  tons  of  iron,  and 
257,000  of  its  470,000  tons  of  copper,  and  were  steadily 
increasing  our  lead  over  all  other  countries  in  the  production 
and  export  of  wheat,  corn,  and  cotton.  During  the  whole  of 
the  nineteenth  century  we  had  been  a  debtor  nation,  inviting 
the  capital  of  Europe  to  aid  in  the  development  of  our  great 

domain,  and  paying  our  ob 
ligations  abroad  from  the 
yield  of  our  Western  fields ; 
but  now  our  land  was  occu 
pied,  our  resources  exploited, 
and  our  industrial  position 
assured.  We  began  to  ex 
port  great  quantities  of  man 
ufactured  goods  and  to  seek 
new  markets  in  the  far 
corners  of  the  earth.  We 
bought  the  bonds  of  China 
and  Japan..  We  sold  millions 
of  dollars'  worth  of  our  in 
dustrial  stocks  to  Europe. 
The  king  of  England  re 
ceived  more  money  annually 
in  interest  from  his  private 
investments  in  American  se- 


Facsimile  of  the  Title-page  of  an 
Act  of  Congress 


curities  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  than  George 
the  Third  had  been  able  to  wring  from  the  thirteen  colonies  by 
taxation. 

The  progress  of  the  United  States  and  her  sister  republics  of 
Central  and  South  America  was  celebrated  by  a  Pan-American 
Exposition  held  at  Buffalo  in  the  summer  of  1901.  President 
McKinley  attended  the  exposition,  and  in  a  noble  speech,  on 
the  fifth  of  September,  outlined  the  policy  of  friendly  trade  and 
reciprocal  good  will  which  we  should  cultivate  with  the  nations 
of  the  world.  It  was  his  last  public  utterance.  The  next  day, 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 


593 


as  he  was  holding  a  reception,  he  was  shot  by  a  miserable 
anarchist  named  Czolgosz,  whose  brain  had  been  inflamed 
by  reading  the  tirades  of  the  "  yellow  press  "  against  "  Czar 
McKinley."  After  a  week  of  patient  suffering  the  President 

died,  —  the  third  victim 
of  the  assassin's  bullet 
since  the  Civil  War. 

The  lamented  McKin-  834.  Theo- 
ley  was  succeeded  in  the  *°Jte  Roose" 
presidency  by  a  man  who, 
for  the  last  decade,  has 
filled  the  stage  of  our  public 
life  more  completely  and 
conspicuously  than  any 
other  American,  and  who 
to-day  is  probably  the  best 
known  man  of  the  civilized 
world.  Theodore  Roose 
velt  was  born  in  New  York 
City,  October  2 7,  1858,  of 
sturdy  Dutch  stock.  After 
graduating  at  Harvard 
in  the  class  of  1880,  he 
entered  the  legislature  of 
his  state.  He  was  a  dele 
gate  to  the  famous  Re 
publican  national  conven 
tion  of  1884,  where  he  opposed  the  nomination  of  James  G. 
Elaine,  but  he  did  not  "  bolt "  the  ticket  with  the  Mugwumps 
to  vote  for  Cleveland.  The  next  two  years  he  spent  on  a  ranch 
in  North  Dakota,  strengthening  his  rather  feeble  health,  satis 
fying  his  longing  for  the  free,  vigorous  life  of  the  plains  and 
his  intense  love  of  nature,  and  at  the  same  time  gaining  that 
appreciation  of  the  value  of  our  great  Western  domain  which 
has  so  conspicuously  influenced  his  public  administration.  He 


Copyright  by  Harris  and  Ewing 

Theodore  Roosevelt 


594      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

was  appointed  to  the  Civil  Service  Commission  by  President 
Harrison  in  1889,  where  he  showed  his  devotion  to  clean  and 
honest  politics  by  greatly  enlarging  the  "  merit  system  "  of  ap 
pointment  to  office.1  We  have  already  seen  how  he  resigned 
his  assistant  secretaryship  of  the  navy  in  1898  to  accept  the 
lieutenant-colonelcy  of  the  Rough  Riders  in  the  Spanish  War. 
Returning  to  New  York  as  a  military  hero  he  was  elected  gov 
ernor  of  the  Empire  State  in  the  autumn  of  1898  by  a  large 
majority.  As  governor  Mr.  Roosevelt  set  too  high  a  standard 
of  official  morality  to  please  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  ma 
chine,  and  they  craftily  planned  to  "  shelve  "  him  by  "  promot 
ing  "  him  to  the  vice  presidency,  —  an  office  of  considerable 
dignity,  but  of  practically  no  influence  or  responsibility.  Against 
his  determined  and  even  tearful  protest  the  Philadelphia  conven 
tion  of  1900,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  placed  his  name  on  the  pres 
idential  ticket  with  McKinley's.  The  politicians  of  New  York 
considered  Governor  Roosevelt  "  laid  in  his  political  grave." 
But  his  resurrection  was  speedy.  Less  than  a  year  after  his 
election  to  the  vice  presidency  he  was  called  on  to  take  the 
oath  as  President  of  the  United  States  (September  14,  1901). 
835.  Roose-  On  the  day  of  his  inauguration  President  Roosevelt  an- 
tion  oi°theeP~  nounced  his  intention  of  carrying  out  the  policies  of  his  pred- 
presidency  ecessor,  and  gave  an  earnest  of  his  statement  by  requesting  the 
cabinet  officers  to  retain  their  portfolios.  But  the  seasoned 
old  politicians  at  Washington  and  the  shrewd  bankers  in  Wall 
Street  were  apprehensive  lest  "  this  young  man  "  of  forty-two, 
with  his  self-assurance,  his  independence,  his  dauntless  courage, 
and  his  unquenchable  idealism,  should  disturb  the  well-oiled  ma 
chinery  of  the  "  business  man's  government "  and  play  havoc 
with  the  stock  market.  They  soon  discovered  that  they  had  in 

1  During  Roosevelt's  six  years  on  the  commission  (1889-1895)  the  offices 
under  the  classified  civil  service  were  increased  from  14,000  to  40,000.  A  great 
part  of  the  voluminous  annual  reports  of  the  commission  (VI  to  XI)  was  written 
by  Mr.  Roosevelt,  besides  numerous  magazine  articles  in  support  of  the  merit 
system.  When  he  resigned  his  office  in  1895  to  become  president  of  the  New 
York  police  board,  President  Cleveland  congratulated  him  on  "  the  extent  and 
permanence  of  the  reform  methods  "  he  had  brought  about  in  the  civil  service. 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  595 

Roosevelt  a  President  who,  like  Grover  Cleveland,  interpreted 
his  oath  to  "  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  "  to  mean  not  waiting  docilely  in  the  White 
House  for  bills  to  come  from  the  Capitol,  but  initiating,  direct 
ing,  and  restraining  the  legislation  of  Congress,  in  the  name  and 
interest  of  the  great  American  people,  whose  representative 
he  was. 

In  his  first  message  to  Congress,  December  3,  1901,  —  a  very  836.  Roose- 
long  and  very  able  state  paper,  —  Roosevelt  demanded  more  nuai  message" 
than  a  dozen  important  "  reform  "  measures,  and  sounded  the  December  3, 
keynote  of  his  entire  administration.  He  recommended  that 
the  federal  government  assume  power  of  supervision  and 
regulation  over  all  corporations  doing  an  interstate  busi 
ness  ;  that  a  new  Department  of  Commerce  be  created,  with  a 
Secretary  in  the  President's  cabinet ;  that  the  Interstate  Com 
merce  Act  be  amended  so  as  to  prevent  shippers  from  receiv 
ing  special  rates  from  the  railroads;  that  the  Cuban  tariff  be 
lowered ;  that  the  President  be  given  power  to  transfer  public 
lands  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  to  be  held  as  forest 
reserves ;  that  the  navy  be  strengthened  by  several  new  battle 
ships  and  heavy-armored  cruisers;  that  the  civil  service  be 
extended  to  all  offices  in  the  District  of  Columbia;  and  that 
the  federal  government  inaugurate,  at  the  public  expense,  a 
huge  system  of  reservoirs  %  and  canals  for  the  irrigation  of  our 
arid  lands  in  the  West.  Besides  making  these  specific  recom 
mendations,  President  Roosevelt  discussed  "  anarchy,"  the 
trusts,  the  labor  question,  immigration,  the  tariff,  our  merchant 
marine,  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  civil  service  reform,  and  our 
duty  toward  our  new  possessions. 

The  energetic  President  traveled  through  the  various  states,  837.  Roose- 
emphasizing  his  policies  in  many  public  speeches,  and  winning  P°PU" 

immense  popularity  in  every  section  of  the  country.  He  spoke  in 
plain,  vigorous  language  on  all  subjects  in  which  he  himself,  as  a 
virile,  courageous,  democratic  American  citizen,  was  interested, 
from  the  government  of  our  foreign  colonies  and  the  control  of 


596       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


our  domestic  industries  to  the  choice  of  an  occupation  and 
the  training  of  a  family.  He  popularized  the  expressions 
"  the  criminal  rich,"  "  the  square  deal,"  "  clean  as  a  hound's 
tooth,"  and  made  the  rare  adjective  "  strenuous  "  one  of  the 
commonest  in  our  vocabulary.  He  showed  little  regard  for 
precedent  or  the  staid  decorum  of  official  propriety  when  it 
was  a  question  of  performing  what  he  regarded  as  a  fair 
or  useful  act.  In  spite  of  the  hostile  criticism  of  almost  the 

entire  South,  he  appointed  an 
efficient  colored  man  collector  of 
the  port  of  Charleston.  When  a 
severe  strike  in  the  anthracite 
mines  of  Pennsylvania  brought  on 
a  coal  famine  in  the  summer  of 
1902,  and  threatened  to  cause  un 
told  suffering  during  the  follow 
ing  winter,  the  President  called  to 
gether  representatives  of  the  miners 
and  of  the  owners  of  the  coal  fields, 
in  a  conference  at  the  White  House, 
and  prevailed  upon  them  to  submit 
their  dispute  to  the  arbitration  of  a 
commission  which  he  appointed. 
There  isjno  phrase  in  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  in  the 

definition  of  the  President's  powers  and  duties,  that  could  be 
interpreted  as  giving  him  the  right  to  intervene  in  a  dispute 
between  capital  and  labor.  But  he  did  intervene  for  the  relief 
of  millions  of  his  anxious  fellow  countrymen ;  and  no  public 
act  ever  brought  him  a  greater  or  more  deserved  reward  of 
praise. 

Recognizing  that  great  combinations  of  capital  were  inevitable, 
and  that  the  corporation,  or  trust,  was  a  necessary  instrument  of 
corporations     modern  industry,  he  repeatedly  declared  that  no  honest  business 
had  anything  to  fear  from  his  administration.  At  the  same  time  he 


John  Mitchell 

President  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers  of  America 


838.  His  atti 
tude  toward 
the  great 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  597 

insisted  that  those  corporations  which  practically  monopolized 
such  necessities  of  life  as  coal,  oil,  beef,  and  sugar,  or,  like  the 
railroads,  had  received  invaluable  public  franchises  in  return  for 
services  to  be  rendered  to  the  public,  should  not  be  allowed  to 
reap  fabulous  profits  by  charging  exorbitant  prices  or  by  securing 
illegal  privileges  through  the  bribery  of  legislatures,  but  should 
be  subject  to  proper  regulation  by  the  government.  Therefore 
he  directed  his  attorney-general  to  commence  over  forty  suits 
against  railroads  or  industrial  corporations  during  his  adminis 
tration.  The  government  won  but  few  of  these  actions,  but 
the  indirect  effect  of  what  was  popularly  called  "  busting  the 
trusts  "  was  highly  beneficial.  It  aroused  public  sentiment  on 
the  most  important  economic  problem  confronting  our  nation. 

Toward  labor  President  Roosevelt  was  sympathetic.  As  a  839.  Hisatti- 
worker  himself,  he  had  great  respect  for  the  men  who  go  down  Jabortoward 
into  the  mines,  or  drive  the  locomotive  across  the  plains  of  the 
West.  He  believed  in  the  right  of  labor  to  organize  in  unions 
for  the  sake  of  preserving  the  quality  of  its  output  and  of 
making  its  demands  on  the  capitalist  employer  more  effective 
by  collective  bargaining.  He  recognized  the  justice  of  the  strike 
when  no  other  form  of  action  was  able  to  secure  a  "  square 
deal"  for  the  worker.  He  declared  that  the  injunction  without 
notice  was  an  unjust  restraint  against  organized  labor.1  But 
violence  or  wanton  destruction  of  property  or  interference  with 
the  liberty  of  any  man  to  work  where  and  when  he  chose,  he 
condemned  as  a  violation  of  the  law ;  and  lawlessness  he  con 
sidered  just  as  intolerable  in  the  strikers  who  burned  freight 
cars  as  in  the  directors  who  doctored  freight  rates. 

In  his  first  message  to  Congress  President  Roosevelt  spoke  840.  Hiscon- 
with  the  eloquence  of  a  true  lover  of  nature  of  the  need  "of  pre- 
serving  our  forest  domain.  It  was,  in  his  opinion,  "  the  most  vital 
internal  question  of  the  United  States."  We  have  seen  (p.  512) 
how  lavishly  our  government  disposed  of  its  unoccupied  lands  in 
the  days  when  they  were  believed  to  be  inexhaustible.  Andrew 
1  See  note,  p.  564. 


598       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

Johnson  soberly  calculated  that  it  would  take  six  hundred  years 
for  our  great  West  to  "  fill  in  "  ;  but  twenty-two  years  after  he 
left  the  presidential  chair  (1891)  the  menace  of  the  exhaustion 
of  our  forest  domains  from  reckless  and  wasteful  cutting  was 
so  great  that  Congress  authorized  the  President,  at  his  discretion, 
to  withdraw  timber  lands  from  entry  for  public  sale.  Roosevelt 
got  Congress  to  extend  the  same  authorization  to  mineral  lands, 
and  withdrew  from  sale  over  100,000  acres  of  coal  fields  in 
Alaska.  Altogether  Roosevelt's  proclamation  brought  the  area 
of  our  reserved  forest  and  mineral  lands  up  to  more  than  150,- 
000,000  acres,  —  a  tract  larger  than  France  and  the  Nether 
lands  combined.  Had  our  government  adopted  this  wise  policy  a 
generation  earlier,  it  would  have  been  able  to-day  to  draw  from 
its  sales  of  timber  and  water  power,  its  leases  of  coal  and  oil 
lands,  a  revenue  sufficient  to  run  the  federal  government  with 
out  the  imposition  of  a  tariff,  which  hampers  foreign  trade,  taxes 
the  laboring  man  on  almost  every  necessity  of  life,  and  by  its 
protective  clauses  still  further  enriches  the  corporations  which 
have  seized  on  the  natural  resources  of  our  opulent  country.1 
President  Roosevelt  put  the  crowning  stone  on  his  splendid  work 
for  the  conservation  of  our  natural  resources  when  he  invited 
the  governors  of  all  the  states  to  a  conference  at  the  White 
House,  in  May,  1908,  to  outline  a  uniform  policy  of  preservation. 
841.  The  For  his  irrigation  policy  the  President  secured,  in  June,  1902, 

the  arid  west  the  passage  of  a  Reclamation  Act,  by  which  the  proceeds  from 
the  sale  of  public  lands  in  sixteen  mining  and  grazing  states  and 
territories  of  the  West  (the  so-called  "  cowboy  states  ")  should  go 
into  a  special  irrigation  fund  instead  of  into  the  public  treasury. 

1  The  iron  deposits  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota  alone,  including 
the  famous  Vermilion,  Menominee,  and  Mesabi  ranges,  which  furnish  88  per 
cent  of  the  ore  of  the  country,  are  estimated  by  the  United  States  Steel  Corpo 
ration,  whose  property  they  are,  to  be  worth  over  $1,000,000,000.  By  the  census 
of  1900,  200,000,000  of  the  800,000,000  cultivable  acres  of  the  United  States 
are  owned  by  47,000  people,  —  the  population  of  a  fourth-rate  Eastern  city.  The 
mineral  output  of  the  country  is  worth  over  $2,000,000,000  a  year.  A  government 
royalty  of  15  per  cent  on  this  sum  would  yield  a  revenue  equal  to  that  collected 
from  our  high  tariff. 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 


599 


The  irrigated  lands  were  to  be  sold  to  settlers  at  moderate 
prices,  on  a  ten-year  installment  plan,  the  proceeds  going  con 
stantly  to  renew  the  fund.  Under  the  beneficial  operation  of 
this  law  large  tracts  of  land,  formerly  worth  only  a  cent  or  two 
an  acre  for  cattle  grazing,  have  already  become  worth  several 
hundred  dollars  an  acre  for  agriculture  ;  and  one  may  see  in  the 


The  Roosevelt  Dam,  Arizona 
A  monument  of  the  conservation  policy 

Eastern  markets  apples,  four  or  five  inches  in  diameter,  grown 
on  Arizona  farms  which,  ten  years  ago,  were  sandy  wastes 
covered  with  coarse,  scrubby  grass  or  "sagebrush."  It  is  not 
unlikely  that  future  generations,  looking  back  on  Theodore 
Roosevelt's  work,  will  rank  his  part  in  the  conservation  and 
redemption  of  our  Western  lands  as  his  greatest  service  to  the 
American  republic. 


600      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


842.  The 

Panama  Canal 


Under  the  Roosevelt  administration  work  was  begun  on  the 
greatest  piece  of  engineering  ever  undertaken  in  America,  — 
the  Panama  Canal.  Since  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty  of  1850, 
the  piercing  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  had  been  contemplated  ; 
and  after  a  French  company,  organized  by  the  successful  builder 
of  the  Suez  Canal,  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps,  had  begun  work  at 
Panama  (1881),  various  American  companies  began  to  make 
estimates  for  a  route  across  Nicaragua.  The  Spanish  War,  with 
its  serious  lesson  of  the  i4,ooo-mile  voyage  that  had  to  be  taken 


B      E 


N 


SEA 


Length  of  Canal  49.8  mllea 
The  ''Canal  2one"+-+-+- 


The  Republic  of  Panama 

by  the  Oregon  to  get  from  one  side  of  our  country  to  the  other, 
and  with  the  new  responsibilities  which  it  brought  by  the  acqui 
sition  of  colonies  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  the  West  Indies, 
showed  the  necessity  of  the  immediate  construction  of  the  canal. 
As  a  preliminary,  Secretary  Hay,  in  December,  1901,  secured 
the  abrogation  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty  from  the  friendly 
British  government,  thereby  allowing  the  United  States  to  build 
and  control  an  Isthmian  canal  alone.  At  the  same  time  a  com 
mission  which  had  been  appointed  to  investigate  the  relative 
advantages  of  routes  through  Nicaragua  and  Panama  reported 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 


60 1 


Route  of  the  Panama  Canal 


in  favor  of  the  former.    The 
French    Panama   Company, 
however,  had  failed  as  a  re 
sult  of  scandalous  misman 
agement  and   thieving,   and 
was  anxious  to  sell  its  rights 
and  apparatus  at  Panama  to 
the  United  States.    After  a 
warm    fight    over    the    two 
routes    Congress    voted,    in 
June,    1902,  that  the  canal 
should  go  through  Panama 
if  the  President  could  secure 
the  route  "  within  a  reason 
able  time";  if  not,  it  should ' 
go  through  Nicaragua. 

President   Roosevelt  had  843.  The  rev- 
no   difficulty  in  buying   out  ^nima'11 
the   French    Panama   Com-  Novembers, 
pany  for  $40,000,000.    But 
when  he  tried  to  negotiate 
with    Colombia    (of    which 
Panama  was  a  province)  for 
the  right  to  build  the  canal, 
offering  Colombia  $10,000,- 
ooo  down  and  a  rental  of 
$250,000  a  year  for  the  con 
trol  of  a  strip  of  land  ten  miles 
wide  across  the  Isthmus  (the 
Hay-Herran     Treaty),     the 
Colombian    Senate   rejected 
the  treaty  (August  12, 1903). 
Both  the  United  States  and 


1903 


the  province  of  Panama  were  exasperated  by  this  attempt  of 
Colombia  to  hold  back  the  world's  progress  by  barring  the 


602       History  of  the  Repiiblic  since  the  Civil  War 

route  across  the  Isthmus.  Some  rather  high-handed  diplomacy 
was  conducted  at  Washington  by  secret  agents  from  Panama, 
and  when  the  Colombian  Senate  adjourned  at  the  end  of  Octo 
ber  without  having  reconsidered  its  refusal,  United  States  gun 
boats  were  already  hovering  about  the  Isthmus  with  orders  to  let 
no  armed  force  land  on  its  soil.  On  the  evening  of  November  3, 
a  "  quiet  uprising  "  took  place  in  Panama,  under  the  protec 
tion  of  our  marines,  and  the  Colombian  authorities  were  politely 
shown  from  the  province.  Within  a  week  the  new  republic  of 
Panama  had  its  accredited  representative,  Bunau-Varilla,  in 
Washington,  who  resumed  immediately  the  negotiations  for  the 
construction  of  the  canal.  The  Hay-Bunau-Varilla  Treaty,  of 
November  18,  1903,  with  Panama  was  essentially  the  old  Hay- 
Herran  Treaty  rejected  by  Colombia  the  preceding  August, 
except  that  we  bought  the  ten-mile  strip  outright  from  Panama.1 
844.  Prob-  The  route  decided  on  and  the  treaty  secured,  the  work  of  exca- 
co^struction  vation  began  in  May,  1904.  But  there  have  been  many  difficult 
of  the  canal  problems  to  meet  at  Panama,  —  the  sanitation  of  the  Isthmus, 
the  importation  of  efficient  laborers  who  could  dig  in  the  tropical 
climate,  dissensions  in  the  Canal  Commission,  the  decision  be 
tween  a  lock  or  a  sea-level  canal,  the  testing  of  the  soil  for  the 
locks  and  the  big  dam  at  Gatun,  and  the*question  of  letting  out 
the  work  by  private  contract  or  intrusting  it  to  government  en 
gineers.  In  June,  1906,  Congress  determined  on  the  high-level 
lock  canal,  and  the  next  spring,  after  securing  the  bids  of  several 

1  The  encouragement  of  the  secession  of  Panama  from  Colombia  has  been 
called  an  "ineffaceable  blot  of  dishonor"  on  the  Roosevelt  administration.  It 
is  certainly  proved  that  the  government  at  Washington  was  privy  to  the  revolt 
in  Panama,  not  only  by  the  presence  of  our  gunboats  near  the  Isthmus,  but  also 
by  a  dispatch  to  Panama  from  acting  Secretary  of  State  Loomis,  inquiring  how 
the  revolt  was  proceeding,  several  hours  before  it  had  broken  out.  It  was  or" 
course  necessary  to  have  the  canal,  but  we  played  the  part  of  the  wolf  to  the 
lamb  toward  Colombia.  As  Professor  Coolidge  says,  we  had  as  little  regard  for 
Colombia  as  a  railroad  company  has  for  the  claims  of  an  Indian  squatter  along 
its  line.  Congress  had  consented  only  reluctantly  to  the  Panama  route,  and 
President  Roosevelt  feared  that  if  Congress  met  again  (in  December,  1903) 
before  the  Panama  route  was  secured,  it  might  vote  that  the  "  reasonable  time" 
allowed  for  the  acquisition  of  the  route  had  expired,  and  go  back  to  the  Nica- 
raguan  plan. 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 


603 


contractors,  the  President  decided  for  government  construction. 
Since  1907  the  engineers  have  "  made  the  dirt  fly"  at  Panama. 

The  tremendous  advantages  that  will  result  from  the  open-  845.  Benefits 
ing  of  the  canal  to  the  world's  traffic  may  be  judged  from  the 
following  table  of  distances  : l 


of  the  canal 


From 

To 

Distance  at  present 
(via  Cape  Horn 
or  Suez) 

Distance  via  Pan 
ama  Canal 

Miles 
saved 

New  York 

San  Francisco 

13,000 

5,200 

7,800 

New  York 

Yokohama 

13,000 

9,700 

3.300 

New  York 

Panama 

10,800 

2,OOO 

8,800 

New  York 

Manila 

13,000 

9,000 

4,OOO 

Havana 

San  Francisco 

1  1  ,000 

5,000 

6,OOO 

San  Francisco 

London 

l6,OOO 

9,000 

7,OOO 

The  influence    upon    the    republics    of   Central   and   South  846.  our  re 
America  of  our  presence  at  Panama  and  in  the  West  Indies 


will  be  increasingly  felt.    Till  very  recent  years   our  attitude  American 

republics 
toward  those   republics  has  been  generally  that  of  cold  and 

distant  friendship.  Because  we  have  been  essentially  a  food- 
producing  country  like  Brazil  and  Argentina  and  Chile,  we  have 
let  England,  France,  and  Germany  have  their  trade.2  Of  the 
$500,000,000  worth  of  goods  that  the  South  American  repub 
lics  imported  in  1900,  the  United  States,  their  nearest  and 
richest  neighbor,  sold  them  but  $41,000,000  worth.  But  now 
that  we  have  become  a  great  manufacturing  country,  with  ex 
ports  double  our  imports,  we  need  the  growing  markets  of 

1  The  Suez  Canal,  which  was  completed  in  1869,  was  entirely  paid  for  by  the 
fees  of  vessels  passing  through  in  the  first  seven  years.    In  1869,  10  vessels 
passed  through  the  canal  paying  $10,000  in  fees  ;  in  1904,  over  4000  vessels  paid 
fees  of  $20,000,000.   The  shares  which  the  British  government  bought  in  1875 
for  $20,000,000  are  now  worth  over  $150,000,000.   The  Panama  Canal  will  be  very 
expensive,  costing  probably  $400,000,000,  but  the  fees  will  pay  for  it  in  less  time 
than  it  takes  to  build  it. 

2  Elihu  Root,  when  Secretary  of  State,  returning  from  a  Pan-American  Con 
gress  at  Rio  Janeiro  in  the  autumn  of  1906,  reported  that  the  previous  year  there 
were  seen  in  the  harbor  of  that  great  Brazilian  seaport  1785  ships  flying  the  flag 
of  Great  Britain,  657  with  the  German  flag,  349  with  the  French,  142  with  the 
Norwegian,  and  seven  sailing  vessels  (two  of  which  were  in  distress)  flying  the 
Stars  and  Stripes.    Our  merchant  marine  is  so  scanty  that  such  goods  as  we 
send  to  South  America  go  via  the  European  ports  in  European  ships. 


604       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

these  southern  republics  for  our  agricultural  implements,  our 
electrical  machinery,  our  steel  rails  and  locomotives,  our  cotton, 
woolen,  and  leather  goods.  We  have  revived  Elaine's  fertile 
idea  of  the  Pan-American  congresses,1  and  a  Bureau  of  Ameri 
can  Republics  has  been  organized  at  Washington  to  facilitate 
our  cordial  relations  with  the  other  American  republics. 


A  Steam  Shovel  at  Work  on  the  Canal 

847.  Roose-        Coincident  with  this  revival  of  interest  in  the  Latin  repub- 

sion  of  the  "  ^cs  °^  America  came  a  very  significant  extension  of  the  Monroe 

D°ctr'n  Doctrine  by  President  Roosevelt,  when,  in  order  to  satisfy  the 

European  creditors  of  Santo  Domingo,  he  appointed  a  receiver 

1  Such  conferences  were  held  in  Mexico  in  1901,  in  Rio  Janeiro  in  1906,  and 
in  Buenos  Aires  in  1910.  Of  this  last  congress  Professor  Shepard  of  Columbia, 
its  secretary,  said :  "  The  Conference  will  attempt  to  standardize  certain  customs 
and  sanitary  regulations,  and  to  agree  on  uniform  patent,  trade-mark,  and  copy 
right  laws.  It  will  do  all  it  can  to  cement  friendly  relations,  and  perhaps  arrange 
for  exchanges  of  professorships  and  scholarships  similar  to  the  Roosevelt 
exchange  professorship  with  Germany." 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  605 

to  manage  its  bankrupt  treasury.  Heretofore  we  had  only  for 
bidden  Europe  to  step  into  the  republics  of  the  New  World ; 
now,  at  the  request  of  Europe,  we  stepped  in  ourselves.  If 
this  principle  is  followed  out,  it  must  mean  a  virtual  protectorate 
of  the  United  States  over  all  the  weaker  republics  of  the  South, 
—  a  move  which  many  "  expansionists  "  have  long  regarded  as 
the  logical  and  desirable  outcome  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 

President  Roosevelt's  independence  of  sanctioned  forms,  his  848.  Roose- 
,.    ,  .....  ,  velt  and  the 

attack  on  the  evils  of  the  corporations,  his  insistence  on  larger  senate 

powers  for  the  regulation  of  the  railroads  by  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  roused  a  good  deal  of  opposition  in 
Congress,  and  especially  in  the  Senate.  The  Senate  had  been 
"  scolded  "  by  Roosevelt  for  not  ratifying  some  reciprocity  tariff 
treaties  which  he  had  negotiated  in  accord  with  the  policy  of 
McKinley,  and  as  the  presidential  year  of  1904  approached,  a 
movement  was  started  to  supplant  him  by  Senator  Hanna.  But 
with  the  death  of  Hanna  in  February,  1904,  the  opposition 
collapsed,  and  Roosevelt  was  unanimously  nominated  for  what 
was  practically  a  second  term. 

The  Democratic  convention  at  St.  Louis  came  again  into  the  849.  The 
hands  of  the  conservatives,  who  had  been  beaten  at  Chicago 
eight  years  before.  It  nominated  Alton  B.  Parker,  chief  judge 
of  the  New  York  Court  of  Appeal,  who  immediately  made  it 
clear  by  a  telegram  to  St.  Louis  that  he  was  inalterably  pledged 
to  the  gold  standard.  His  views  were  accepted  by  the  conven 
tion,  in  spite  of  Bryan's  protest.  Judge  Parker  was  a  man  of 
the  highest  character  and  unquestioned  ability,  but  he  proved  a 
veritable  man  of  straw  against  Theodore  Roosevelt.  The  Re 
publicans  won  by  the  largest  majority,  both  in  the  electoral  vote 
(336  to  140)  and  in  the  popular  vote  (7,624,489  to  5,082,754), 
ever  recorded  in  our  history.  Roosevelt  carried  every  state 
north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  and  even  invaded  the  "  solid 
South "  by  winning  Missouri  and  Maryland.  He  announced 
on  the  evening  of  his  victory  that  he  would  not  be  a  candidate 
for  renomination  in  1908. 


606      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

After  the  popular  indorsement  of  1904  President  Roosevelt 
intensified  rather  than  relaxed  his  strenuous  program.  He  se 
cured  the  passage  of  the  Hepburn  Rate  Bill,  enlarging  the  con 
trol  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  over  the  railroads, 
started  suits  against  several  trusts  which  were  guilty  of  law- 
breaking,  set  on  foot  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  meat 
packing  houses  in  Chicago,  Omaha,  and  Kansas  City,1  secured 
the  passage  of  a  pure  food  and  drugs  bill  through  Congress, 


The  Peace  Palace  at  The  Hague 
Given  by  Andrew  Carnegie 

greatly  improved  the  consular  service,  pushed  the  work  on  the 
Panama  Canal,  urged  the  admission  to  statehood  of  the  terri 
tories  of  Oklahoma,  Arizona,  and  New  Mexico,  and  waged 
a  continual  fight  for  the  conservation  of  our  forests  and  the 
redemption  of  our  waste  plains. 

1  Prompted  by  startling  revelations  of  the  horrible  condition  prevailing  in 
the  packing  houses,  which  had  been  portrayed  by  Upton  Sinclair  in  a  novel 
called  "  The  Jungle." 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  607 

His  prestige  was  acknowledged  abroad  as  well  as  at  home.   851.  Roose 
At  his  suggestion  a  dispute  over  the  right  of  European  nations  ^fluence"51 
to  collect  their  debts  by  force  from  the  South  American  repub 
lics  was  referred  to  the  Hague  Court.1    On  his  initiative  Russia 
and  Japan,  who  were  engaged  in  a  bloody  war  for  the  posses 
sion  of  the  ports  of  Manchuria  and  Korea,  were  tendered  the 
friendly  offices  of  the  United  States  and  brought  to  conclude 
peace  at  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire  (August,  1905).    In  the 
summer  of  1906  President  Roosevelt  received  the  Nobel  prize2 
for  his  services  in  the  cause  of  international  peace. 

Roosevelt  had  declared  immediately  after  his  election  in  1904  852.  Taft 
that  he  would  not  be  a  candidate  for  reelection.  His  recom- 
mendation  of  his  Secretary  of  War,  William  H.  Taft,  as  his 
successor  was  equivalent  to  a  nomination  —  as  Jackson's  recom 
mendation  of  Van  Buren  had  been,  seventy  years  before.  Taft 
was  nominated  on  the  first  ballot  in  the  Republican  convention 
at  Chicago,  June  18,  1908,  and  easily  defeated  his  opponent, 
Bryan,  by  323  electoral  votes  to  163,  in  a  campaign  devoid  of 
any  special  interest.  The  old  issues  of  silver  and  imperialism, 
on  which  Bryan  had  run  in  1896  and  1900,  were  dead.  Both 
parties  in  1908  pledged  themselves  to  tariff  revision,  and 
Roosevelt  had  given  his  administration  so  democratic  a  charac 
ter  by  his  prosecution  of  the  trusts  that  he  had  stolen  most  of 

1  On  the  motion  of  the  emperor  of  Russia  all  the  nations  in  diplomatic  re 
lations  with  the  Russian  court  were  invited  to  attend  a  conference  at  The  Hague, 
Holland,  in  1899,  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  reduction  of  armaments,  the 
humanizing  of  warfare,  and  the  settlement  of  international  disputes  by  arbitration. 
As  a  result,  although  armaments  were  not  decreased,  more  humane  methods  of 
warfare  were  adopted,  and  a  permanent  Court  of  Arbitration  was  established,  to 
which  many  cases  of  international  dispute  have  been  referred  for  settlement.   In 
1904  President  Roosevelt  suggested  a  second   Hague  conference,  but  it  was 
postponed  on  account  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War  until  the  summer  of  1907, 
when  it  met  in  a  splendid  new  hall  built  by  Andrew  Carnegie,  an  ardent  apostle 
of  universal  peace. 

2  Alfred  Nobel,  a  Swedish  scientist  who  died  in  1896,  left  a  large  fortune,  the 
income  of  which  was  to  be  devoted  to  prizes  to  be  awarded  annually  to  men  who 
had  made  conspicuous  contributions  to  science,  letters,  and  the  cause  of  inter 
national  peace.    President  Roosevelt  devoted  his  prize  of  $40,000  to  establishing 
a  commission  to  work  for  industrial  peace  in  our  country. 


853.  Ex- 
President 
Roosevelt 


608       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

Bryan's  thunder.  The  Republicans  maintained  their  invasion 
of  the  solid  South  by  again  carrying  the  state  of  Missouri, 
together  with  all  the  Northern  and  Western  states  except 
Nebraska,  Colorado,  and  Nevada. 

Immediately  after  the  close  of  his  term  of  office,  Colonel 
Roosevelt  went  to  East  Africa  on  a  long  hunting  trip  to  pro 
cure  specimens  of  rare  game  for  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
at  Washington.  When  he  "  emerged  from  the  jungle,"  in  the 


The  Election  of  1908 

spring  of  1910,  he  at  once  became  the  center  of  observation 
of  the  whole  Western  world.  His  trip  from  Egypt  through  Italy, 
Austria,  France,  Germany,  Holland,  and  England  was  a  con 
tinuous  ovation,  such  as  no  private  citizen  had  ever  received. 
Emperors,  kings,  princes,  presidents,  and  ministers  all  received 
him  with  the  highest  marks  of  honor.  He  delivered  addresses 
at  the  University  of  Cairo,  at  the  Sorbonne,  at  the  University 
of  Berlin,  and  at  Oxford  University.  He  represented  the  United 
States  at  the  funeral  of  King  Edward  VII  in  London.  Whether 
he  seeks  high  public  office  again  or  not,  Theodore  Roosevelt 


WILLIAM    HOWARD    TAFT 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  609 

will  probably  long  remain,  in  the  estimation  of  millions  of  his 
fellow  countrymen,  a  very  influential  factor  in  our  politics  and 
the  most  popular  citizen  of  the  American  republic. 

PRESENT-DAY  PROBLEMS 

More  than  a  hundred  years  ago  Fisher  Ames  of  Massachu-  854.  our 
setts  declared  on  the  floor  of  Congress  that  our  nation  had  stm°ana ex 
grown  "  too  big  for  union  and  too  sordid  for  patriotism."  The  Penment 
5,000,000  Americans  of  Fisher  Ames's  time  have  increased 
eighteenfold,  and  to-day  one  man  in  Wall  Street,  Mr.  J.  Pierpont 
Morgan,  controls  railroads,  steamship  lines,  industries,  insurance 
companies,  and  banks  capitalized  at  nearly  $10,000,000,000, 
—  double  the  total  wealth  of  the  thirteen  colonies  which 
Fisher  Ames,  as  a  youth,  rejoiced  to  see  shake  off  the  yoke  of 
George  III.  Yet  our  union  is  more  firmly  cemented  than  ever 
before,  and  our  devotion  to  the  republic  is  unshaken.  We  are 
attempting  to  maintain  a  democracy,  or  government  by  the 
people,  on  a  scale  never  before  witnessed  in  the  world.  The 
failure  of  our  great  experiment  has  been  freely  predicted  both 
by  pessimists  at  home  and  by  incredulous  visitors  from  abroad ; 
but  these  voices  are  only  a  stimulus  to  that  "  eternal  vigilance  " 
which  Daniel  Webster  declared  to  be  the  "  price  of  liberty." 
Our  republican  government  is  always  on  trial,  and  its  prob 
lems  at  the  present  day  are  serious  and  menacing. 

The  greatest  danger  to  our  republic  to-day  is  the  corruption  855.  The 
of  the  government  by  the  money  power.  The  State  is  society 
organized  for  mutual  protection  and  for  various  advantages  in 
social  intercourse,  commerce,  the  cultivation  of  the  arts  and 
sciences,  and  interchange  of  products  and  ideas  with  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  The  government,  in  a  democratic  state  like  ours, 
is  simply  a  committee  chosen  by  society  to  make  and  carry  out 
the  laws  for  the  general  benefit  of  society.  Whenever  the  instru 
ments  of  government  —  the  legislatures,  the  courts,  the  execu 
tive  offices  —  are  dominated  by  interests  which  make  them  serve 
only  a  small  part  of  society,  then  the  government  ceases  to  be 


6 1  o      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


856.  The 
menace  of 
privilege 


"  representative  "  and  democratic.  And  unless  the  people  con 
stantly  regain  and  preserve  their  control  of  the  government, 
they  must  live  in  slavery. 

Now  ever  since  the  triumph  of  the  "  business  interests  "  in  the 
campaign  of  1896  and  the  rapid  organization  of  trusts  follow 
ing  the  Spanish  War, 
material  prosperity  has 
become  the  most  ab 
sorbing  concern  of  our 
country.  The  protection 
and  encouragement  of 
business  has  apparently 
outweighed  even  the  safe 
guarding  of  liberty.  Not 
only  do  the  great  trusts 
control  the  economic  in 
terests  of  our  country, — 
the  output  of  products, 
the  wages  of  laborers,  the 
prices  of  the  necessities 


Cartoon  representing  the  Immunity  of 
the  Trusts  from  Legal  Punishment 


of  life,1  —  but  they  invade  the  realm  of  politics  and  influence 
our  lawmakers  and  our  judges.  Their  enormous  wealth  makes 
it  possible  for  them  to  secure  from  state  legislatures  the  election 
to  the  United  States  Senate  of  men  who  are  devoted  to  their 
interests,  —  railroad  senators,  sugar  senators,  oil  senators,  lum 
ber  senators,  silver  senators,  —  and  these  men  can  very  often 

1  It  is  estimated  that  the  huge  United  States  Steel  trust,  with  its  capital  of 
$1,400,000,000,  controls  over  80  per  cent  of  the  output  of  steel  and  iron  in  our 
country,  that  the  Standard  Oil  trust  controls  85  per  cent  of  the  petroleum  prod 
ucts,  the  Sugar  trust  90  per  cent  of  the  sugar  output,  the  coal-carrying  railroads 
of  Pennsylvania  95  per  cent  of  the  anthracite  coal  of  the  country.  By  throwing 
their  products  on  the  market  or  by  withholding  them,  these  giant  corporations 
can  create  a  glut  or  a  famine  in  these  necessities  and  so  regulate  their  prices  at 
will.  By  shutting  down  or  opening  up  their  mills,  refineries,  and  mines  in  one 
district  or  another,  they  can  absorb  or  reject  great  numbers  of  laborers,  thereby 
disturbing  the  conditions  of  honest  competition  in  the  labor  market.  By  the 
enormous  size  of  their  shipments  they  have  been  able  to  secure,  even  against 
drastic  laws,  favors  from  transportation  companies,  enabling  them  to  undersell 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  6 1 1 

dissuade  Congress  from  passing  laws  hostile'  to  the  business 
interests  which  they  represent.  Moreover,  since  the  senators 
virtually  choose  all  the  federal  judges,1  the  interpretation  of  the 
law  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States  has  been  very  widely 
suspected  of  leaning  unduly  in  favor  of  the  great  corporations. 

The  past  ten  years,  however,  have  seen  a  wonderful  awakening  857.  The 
in  the  American  people  to  the  evils  of  trust-controlled  govern-  J^purifica*-01 
ment.   A  wave  of  reform  sentiment  is  sweeping  over  our  country,  tion  of  politics 
gaining  force  each  year.    This  crusade  for  the  "  square  deal  "  in 
business  and  the  purification  of  politics  has  the  support  of  influ-  - 
ential  men  of  all  parties.    Since  the  daily  press,  often  owned  and 
muzzled  by  the  trusts,  has  ceased  to  lead  public  opinion  in  this 
reform  movement,  a  number  of  popular  magazines  (Collier's 
Weekly,  the  Outlook,  the  American  Magazine,  Me  duress,  Every 
body's,  the  Cosmopolitan}  have  taken  up  the  work  of  exposing 
the  crooked  methods  of  the  trusts  in  business  and  politics,— 
the  work   of  "  muck-raking,"   as  it  has  been  called.     In  the 
Western    states    especially   the   reform  movement   has  grown 
rapidly.     In  Wisconsin,  for  example,  the  people,  after  a  ten 
years'  fight  led  by  Robert  M.  La  Follette  (now  United  States 
senator),  wrested  their  legislature  from  the  control  of  the  rail 
roads,  overthrew  the  old  boss-ridden  nominating  convention, 
selected  their  own  candidates  for  office  by  popular  vote,  and 
bound  their  legislature  to  elect  to  the  United  States  Senate  the 
men  of  the  people's  choice.    Now  two  thirds  of  the  states  of 
the  Union   are  nominating    their  lawmakers    and  officers  by 
popular  vote,  and  one  half  the  states  are  designating  the  men 

and  crush  out  their  rivals.  Anthracite  coal  costs  less  than  $2  a  ton  to  mine  at 
present.  The  railroad  companies  that  own  the  mines  sell  the  coal  to  the  public 
at  $6  a  ton  and  upwards.  Their  immense  profits  of  £200,000,000  a  year  go  to 
pay  dividends  on  the  stock  of  the  railroads.  The  president  of  the  Ontario  and 
Western  Railroad  has  declared  publicly  that  if  competition  were  free,  "stove 
coal  would  be  a  drug  on  the  market  at  $2  a  ton."  Imagine  what  that  would 
mean  for  the  comfort  of  millions  of  American  homes  ! 

1  According  to  the  Constitution,  the  President  appoints  the  federal  judges ; 
but  actually,  by  virtue  of  the  custom  of  "  senatorial  courtesy,"  most  of  the 
federal  officers  "  appointed  by  the  President "  are  recommended  to  him  by  the 
senators  of  the  states  in  which  they  are  appointed. 


612 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 


whom  their  legislatures  shall  send  to  the  federal  Senate. 
Following  the  lead  of  Oregon,  a  number  of  states  (Michigan, 
Missouri,  South  Dakota,  Utah,  Oklahoma,  Montana)  have 
adopted  the  "  initiative  "  and  the  "  referendum."  1  In  a  word," 
the  people  are  beginning  to  control  their  representatives,  to 
make  government  a  service  to  the  community  at  large  instead 
of  a  protection  to  the  interests  of  a  few  enormously  wealthy 


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Mar.  15,  1909 

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Fitzgerald  Resolution 

Jul.  31,  1909 

in 

•:'.-'»'• 

1 

• 

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Payne  Tariff  Bill 

Jan.  7,  1910 

IV 

1 

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JJallingor  Committee 

Mar.  19,  1910 

_vj      |      j      1    ;; 

' 

Norris  Resolution 

Jun.  7,  1910 

VI 

;> 

Lenroot  Railroad  Motion 

Jun.7,  1910 

VII 

Postal  Gag  Rule 

L^J 


D: 


HH "Progressive"  tIM"Standpat"      L^jDemoerat         | |  No-Vote. 

How  Wisconsin  keeps  a.  Watch  on  its  Congressmen 
Published  record  of  votes  of  each  representative  on  important  bills 

men.  The  people  are  determined  to  drive  business  out  of 
politics.  Twenty  years  ago  Senator  Ingalls  of  Kansas  de 
clared  cynically  that  the  purification  of  politics  was  "  an  irides 
cent  dream."  To-day  there  is  a  great  company  of  Americans 
resolved  that  the  dream  shall  become  true. 


1  By  the  '<  initiative  "  is  meant  the  right  of  the  people  to  initiate  legislation. 
On  the  petition  of  a  certain  small  percentage  of  the  voters  of  the  state,  a  subject 
is  presented  to  the  legislature  and  the  legislature  is  obliged  to  take  action  upon 
it.  The  "  referendum "  provides  that  laws  passed  by  the  legislature  must, 
upon  petition  of  a  percentage  of  the  voters  of  the  state,  be  "  referred  "  to  the  peo 
ple  for  indorsement  or  rejection.  Thus,  by  these  two  popular  provisions,  there  is 
no  subject  on  which  the  legislature  can  permanently  refuse  to  take  action  if  the 
people  desire  it,  and  no  law  that  it  can  permanently  register  on  the  records  of  the 


6 1 4       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

858.  The  in-  A  little  group  of  men  in  Congress,  consisting  of  about  a  dozen 
theg«standnd  senators  and  a  score  of  representatives,  have  set  themselves 
patters"  resolutely  to  the  task  of  reforming  the  Republican  party.  They 
are  called  the  "  insurgents."  They  have  opposed  the  administra 
tion  of  President  Taft  for  its  failure  to  redeem  the  preelection 
pledge  to  lower  the  tariff,1  for  dropping  the  clauses  in  the  Taft 
Administration  Railroad  Bill  which  would  give  the  government 
the  power  to  determine  the  true  value  of  the  railroads  and  to 
control  their  issue  of  stocks  and  bonds  (p.  543,  note  i),  for 
retaining  in  the  cabinet  a  Secretary  of  the  Interior  who  was 
strongly  suspected  of  having  been  connected  with  scandals  in  the 
sale  of  the  public  lands  of  the  Northwest,  and  for  general  in 
difference  to  reforms  for  which  the  country  is  ready  and  anxious. 
They  have  forced  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  "  Uncle  Joe  " 
Cannon,  off  the  Rules  Committee,  where  he  practically  domi 
nated  Congress,  and  have  intrusted  the  formulation  of  the 
rules  of  procedure  of  the  House  to  a  committee  of  fifteen 
elected  by  the  members  themselves.2  They  have  accused  Presi 
dent  Taft  of  weakly  surrendering  to  Cannon,  Aldrich,  and  the 
"  standpatters " 3  generally,  in  order  to  preserve  harmony  in 
the  Republican  ranks.  The  standpatters  regard  the  insurgents 
as  a  group  of  hot-headed  agitators,  traitors  to  the  Republican 
party,  demagogues  who  will  soon  tire  of  the  thankless  job  of 

state  if  the  people  oppose  it.  The  "  recall,"  or  the  dismissal  of  a  legislator  from 
his  seat,  is  a  still  more  effective  measure  of  popularcontrol  now  being  demanded 
by  the  radicals  in  many  states.  It  is  practiced  in  a  number  of  city  governments. 

1  The  Payne-Aldrich  Bill  of  1909  reduced  654  rates,  increased  220,  and  left 
1150  unchanged.   That  it  was  not  a  fulfillment  of  the  platform  promise  of  1908 
to  "  revise  the  tariff  downward  "  was  practically  admitted  by  President  Taft  when 
he  wrote,  in  a  memorandum  accompanying  his  signature  of  the  bill,  August  5, 
1909,  "The  bill  is  not  a  perfect  tariff  bill  or  a  complete  compliance  with  the 
promises  made,  strictly  interpreted." 

2  See  above,  p.  546,  note  i. 

3  The  word  "  standpatter  "  is  borrowed  from  the  slang  of  the  game  of  poker, 
where  "  to  stand  pat "  means   to  be  satisfied  with  the  cards  one  holds.     The 
Republican  standpatters  are  willing  to  rely  for  their  support  by  the  voters  on 
what  the  party  has  accomplished  (the  successful  war  against  Spain,  the  organi 
zation  of  our  foreign  colonies,  the  return  of  business  prosperity),  instead  of 
making  promises  for  the  future. 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  615 

kicking  against  the  organization.  But  many  judicious  critics  see 
in  them  the  nucleus  of  a  new  progressive  party,  whose  mission 
shall  be  the  deliverance  of  our  government  from  the  domination 
of  the  trusts  as  the  mission  of  the  new  Republican  party  of  a 
half  century  ago  was  the  deliverance  of  the  government  from 
the  domination  of  the  encroaching  slave  power. 

Nowhere  is  the  movement  for  the  purification  of  politics  859.  "The 
more  marked  than  in  the  government  of  our  cities.  A  genera-  cities" 
tion  ago  our  most  sympathetic  foreign  critic,  the  distinguished 
English  statesman  and  author  James  Bryce,  declared  in  his 
famous  work  "  The  American  Commonwealth  "  that  municipal 
government  was  the  one  conspicuous  failure  of  democracy  in 
America.  Our  own  public  men  were  obliged  sadly  to  echo  his 
words.  For  our  cities  were  in  the  hands  of  rings  and  bosses, 
who  robbed  their  treasuries,  squandered  their  taxes,  sold  their 
offices,  and  woefully  neglected  their  health,  cleanliness,  education, 
and  reputation.  Every  now  and  then  a  city  would  rise  in  a  spasm 
of  indignation  and  "  turn  the  rascals  out "  for  a  year  or  two. 
But  the  forces  of  reform  were  unorganized  and  intermittent, 
while  the  forces  of  corruption  were  thoroughly  organized  and 
unrelaxing.  And  the  latter  won.  "  The  shame  of  the  cities  " * 
continued  to  be  the  reproach  of  the  country. 

But  a  decided  change  came  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  860.  com- 
century.    A  flood  devastated  Galveston,  Texas,  in  September,  £nment8°V~ 
1900,  and  the  people  intrusted  the  management  of  their  city 
during  its  rebuilding  to  a  committee  of  experts.    The  economies 
in  the  city  treasury  and  the  efficacy  of  the  administration  were  so 
astonishing  that  other  cities  began   to   study  Galveston  as  a 
pattern  for  municipal  organization.    Des  Moines,  Iowa,  took 
the  lead,  and  carefully  developed  a  plan  of  "  commission  govern 
ment"  which  scores  of  cities  in  our  country  have  followed. 
The  people  govern,  according  to  the  Des  Moines  plan,  and  not 

1  The  title  of  a  book  by  Lincoln  Steffens  (1904)  revealing  the  unspeakable 
corruption  of  the  government  of  several  of  our  largest  cities  (Minneapolis, 
St.  Louis,  Philadelphia,  San  Francisco). 


6 1 6      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

the  corrupt  ring.  The  boss  is  dethroned.  No  franchise  can  be 
granted  by  the  city  council  without  the  people's  consent. 
Every  ordinance  requiring  the  expenditure  of  the  city's  money 
must  be  publicly  posted  for  a  week  before  action  is  taken  on 
it,  and  a  petition  signed  by  a  certain  percentage  of  the  voters 
can  compel  its  reference  to  a  public  vote.  The  commissioners, 
aldermen,  and  councilmen  are  selected  directly  by  the  people, 
without  the  intervention  of  any  caucus  or  party  machine  or  con 
vention.  Each  of  the  commissioners,  usually  five  in  number,  is 
responsible  for  some  department  of  the  city  government  (public 
affairs,  finance,  public  safety,  streets  and  improvements,  parks 
and  public  works).  No  city  officer  can  be  interested  in  any  con 
tract  with  the  city  or  any  corporation  serving  the  city  (as  water 
works,  street-car  lines,  telephones,  lighting  plants).  All  officers 
are  subject  to  removal  at  any  time  by  the  vote  of  the  people. 
By  midsummer,  1911,  over  one  hundred  American  cities,  mostly 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River,  had  adopted  the  commission  plan 
of  city  government ;  and  the  unanimous  testimony  is  that  im 
mense  improvements  have  resulted  from  it.  Debts  are  wiped 
out,  streets  are  cleaned,  new  schools  and  parks  are  opened,  taxes 
are  reduced,  and  the  people's  money,  instead  of  going  into  the 
pockets  of  the  "  boodler  "  and  the  "  grafter,"  is  being  spent  for 
the  purposes  for  which  the  people  voted  to  have  it  spent.1 
861.  The  Besides  the  reformers  who  look  to  a  vigilant  enforcement  of 
sociaLm  tne  ^aw  to  "  curb  the  trusts  "  and  purify  our  politics,  there  is  a 
small  but  increasing  body  of  men  who  believe  that  our  entire 

1  The  immense  and  constantly  growing  importance  of  good  government  for 
our  cities  may  be  realized  from  a  few  statistics.  While  the  population  of  our  coun 
try  at  large  increased  1 8-fold  during  the  last  century,  the  population  of  our  cities 
increased  n8-fold.  In  Washington's  day  only  one  thirtieth  of  our  population 
lived  in  cities  ;  now  over  one  third  of  our  90,000,000  are  inhabitants  of  cities, 
and  the  six  largest  cities  of  our  country  contain  about  10,000,000  people.  The 
total  indebtedness  of  our  cities  is  $1,400,000,000,  —  a  sum  greater  than  the  debt 
of  the  United  States.  New  York  City  alone  (rated  by  the  census  of  1910  at 
4,766,000)  has  a  population  as  large,  and  wealth  twenty  times  as  great,  as  all  the 
thirteen  colonies  combined  had  in  1775.  Its  property  valuation  ($6,800,000,000)  is 
greater  than  that  of  all  the  states  west  of  the  Missouri  River.  Its  subway,  surface, 
and  elevated  lines  carry  more  passengers  annually  than  all  the  steam  railroads  in 
America. 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  617 

industrial  and  political  system  must  be  changed  if  we  are  not 
to  become  a  nation  of  slaves,  controlled  by  a  few  multimillionaires. 
This  party  bears  the  name  of  "  Socialist,"  because  it  believes 
that  our  national  wealth  should  be  "  socialized  "  ;  that  is,  owned 
by  society  at  large  and  operated  solely  for  the  benefit  of  the 
people.  To  expect  to  check  the  power  of  the  trusts  over  our 
politics,  our  courts  of  justice,  and  the  lives  of  our  twenty  millions 
of  wage  earners,  while  leaving  these  same  trusts  in  possession 
of  the  means  and  instruments  of  the  country's  wealth  (its  land, 
its  transportation  systems,  its  coal,  oil,  and  lumber  fields,  its  fac 
tories  and  machinery),  is  as  foolish,  say  the  Socialists,  as  to  ex 
pect  to  stop  a  river  fed  from  a  thousand  springs,  by  building  a 
dam  across  the  middle  of  its  course.  We  must  socialize  these 
means  of  the  production  and  distribution  of  our  wealth.  They 
must  be  owned  or  managed  by  the  government  for  the  benefit 
of  the  whole  people  rather  than  by  a  few  men  for  the  reaping 
of  enormous  profits. 

Socialism  cannot  be  explained  in  a  paragraph.    It  is  as  diffi-  862.  sociai- 
cult  to  define  as  religion,  for,  like  religion,  it  means  widely 


different  things  to  different  people,  and  is  very  largely  an  stood  in  its 
aspiration.  It  has,  however,  been  commonly  and  unjustly  con-  and  aims 
I  fused  in  the  popular  mind  with  anarchism,  which  seeks  to 
abolish  government,  and  communism,  which  seeks  to  abolish 
private  property.  It  has  also  been  unjustly  associated  in  the 
popular  mind  with  violence,  revolution,  and  a  hateful  war  of 
the  poor  against  the  rich  —  largely,  perhaps,  because  many  of 
the  foreigners  who  have  been  prominent  in  the  Socialist  party 
have  come  from  lands  where  the  torch,  the  bomb,  and  the 
dagger  seem  the  only  weapons  against  despotism.  But  in  this 
country  the  ballot,  freely  put  into  the  hands  of  practically  every 
man,  is  the  weapon  for  peaceful  revolution  ;  and  on  the  ballot 
the  Socialist  party  depends.  Its  vote  when  it  first  entered  the 
presidential  contest,  in  1892,  was  21,164.  In  1908  it  cast 
423,969  votes.  The  common  objections  to  Socialism  —  that  it 
would  discourage  all  incentive  to  progress,  destroy  all  initiative 


6 1 8       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


863.  Evils 
against  which 
Socialism 
protests 


864.  Race 
problems. 
Our  foreign 
wards 


in  business,  reduce  all  men  to  a  common  humdrum  level  of 
inferiority,  break  up  the  home,  and,  in  the  words  of  President 
Butler  of  Columbia  University,  "  wreck  the  world's  efficiency 
for  the  purpose  of  redistributing  the  world's  discontent  "  —  have 
been  fully  discussed  in  the  writings  of  the  modern  advocates 
of  Socialism.1 

The  late  Mark  Hanna,  whose  ideas  on  business  and  politics  we 
have  already  noticed  (p.  569),  declared  that  the  old  party  lines 
between  Democrats  and  Republicans  were  being  obliterated, 
and  that  the  struggle  in  this  country  was  soon  to  come  between 
Socialism  and  capitalism ;  and,  in  fact,  the  present  insurgent 
movement  actually  has  in  its  program  many  of  the  demands 
of  the  Socialist  party.  Individualism  was  the  watchword  of 
the  nineteenth  century ;  cooperation  will  be  the  motto  of  the 
twentieth.  It  is  inconceivable  that  the  great  body  of  American 
citizens,  with  their  high  average  of  intelligence,  their  native 
alertness,  and  splendid  standards  of  industry,  will  long  allow 
one  tenth  of  their  number  to  stagnate  in  abject  poverty,2  their 
workers  to  produce  in  abundance  the  food  and  clothing  of 
which  they  get  a  miserably  meager  share,  and  their  little  chil 
dren  (the  hope  of  the  next  generation)  to  be  maimed  and 
stunted  in  labor  night  and  day  in  factories,  mills,  and  mines,  in 
order  that  a  few  more  hundred  million  dollars  may  be  distributed 
in  dividends  to  the  few  fortunate  people  who  own  such  a  large 
part  of  the  wealth  of  our  land. 

Besides  these  serious  political  and  industrial  questions  that  face 
our  country  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  century,  there  are  other 
problems  growing  out  of  our  relations  to  inferior  races.  We 
have  assumed  the  government  of  about  8,000,000  oriental  and 

1  See  H.  G.  Wells,  New  Worlds  for  Old   (1907) ;   John  Spargo,  Socialism 
(1906) ;   W.  J.  Ghent,  Mass  and  Class  (1904) ;   Morris   Hillquit,  Socialism  in 
Theory  and  Practice  (1909)  ;  and  especially  Edmond  Kelly,  Twentieth  Century 
Socialism  (1910). 

2  Mr.  Robert  Hunter  in  his  work  entitled  "  Poverty  "  (1904)  shows  that  there 
are  10,000,000  people  in  the  United  States  actually  without  the  food,  shelter, 
and  clothing  necessary  to  make  them  efficient  workers  and  respectable  members 
pf  our  great  social  republic. 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  619 

Latin-American  people  in  the  Philippines  and  Porto  Rico,  with 
the  responsibility  for  the  orderly  conduct  of  2,000,000  more  in 
Cuba.  What  we  have  done  for  these  people  has  already  been 
briefly  described,  but  how  great  demands  they  are  going  to  make 
on  our  purse  and  our  patience  we  do  not  yet  know.  It  is  clear 
that  their  education  in  democracy,  their  defense  and  develop 
ment,  must  be  very  important  concerns  for  us,  influencing  our 
politics  considerably. 

Within  our  borders  we  have  a  race  problem  more  serious  865.  The 
than  that  of  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  The  negroes  form  {jf^10  pro 
about  one  half  the  population  of  our  Southern  states.  Since 
their  emancipation  fifty  years  ago  they  have  made  considerable 
progress l ;  but  still  they  are,  as  a  race,  far,  perhaps  centuries, 
behind  the  whites  in  civilization.  How  these  two  races  are  to 
live  together  in  our  Southland  is  a  great  problem.  Some  Southern 
leaders  unfortunately  still  advocate  the  stern  repression  and  even 
the  terrorization  of  the  negro.  Not  only  would  they  keep  the 
colored  race  entirely  out  of  politics,2  but  they  would  force  it  to 
remain  uneducated  and  inefficient.  "  Money  spent  for  public 
schools  for  the  negro,"  said  Governor  Vardaman  of  Mississippi 
in  1908,  "is  robbery  of  the  white  man  and  a  waste  upon  the 
negro."  The  same  spirit  encourages,  or  at  least  regards  with 
complacent  indifference,  the  denial  of  civic  justice  to  the  negro, 
and  permits  the  South  to  be  disgraced  by  lynchings  and  race 
riots.  On  the  other  side  are  a  group  of  noble  Southern  gentle 
men  who  realize  that  neither  cruelty  nor  repression  is  going  to 
make  a  good  citizen  of  the  negro ;  that  the  health  and  peace 

1  Illiteracy  among  the  negroes  decreased  from  70  per  cent  in  1880  to  44  per 
cent  in  1900.   The  wealth  of  the  negroes  to-day  is  estimated  at  over  $300,000,000. 
They  owned  or  rented  746,717  farms  in  1905,  containing  altogether  some  38,000,- 
ooo  acres,  or  double  the  area  of  Scotland.   They  have  over  30  banks,  besides 
building-loan  companies,  insurance  companies,  and  mutual  aid  societies.   There 
are  nearly  2000  negro  physicians  and  surgeons  in  the  United  States,  and  1,600,000 
negroes  (about  one  half  those  of  school  age)  are  enrolled  in  the  public  schools. 

2  We  have  already  discussed  the  Reconstruction  program  of  the  North,  which 
put  the  ballot  into  the  hands  of  the  utterly  unfit  negro  just  emancipated  from 
bondage  (p. 485),  and  have  noticed  the  ways  in  which  the  South  has  nullified 
the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  amendments  (p.  550,  note  i). 


620      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

and  progress  of  the  South  depend  upon  the  education  to  their 
greatest  efficiency  of  both  the  races  within  its  borders;  and 
that,  while  the  races  must  always  be  kept  distinct  socially,  the 
dominance  of  the  white  man  can  and  must  be  the  dominance 
of  the  elder  and  stronger  brother  who  educates,  protects,  and 
encourages  the  weaker. 

The  industrial  and  commercial  progress  of  the  South  in  the 
last  generation  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  facts  in  our 
history.  Since  1880  its  railroad  mileage  has  increased  from 


A  Group  of  Immigrants 

20,000  to  70,000  miles,  the  capital  in  its  cotton  mills  from 
$21,000,000  to  $281,000,000,  the  value  of  its  manufactures 
from  $457,000,000  to  $2,675,000,000,  of  its  food  products 
from  $660,000,000  to  $2,550,000,000,  and  of  its  exports  from 
$264,000,000  to  $619,000,000.  And  still  its  reserves  of  timber, 
coal,  and  iron  ore  are  enormous.  The  South  needs  the  labor  of 
the  negro.  The  prolongation  of  race  hatred  can  bring  her  only 
detriment  and  sorrow. 

866.  immi-        Finally,  a  third  phase  of  the  race  problem  which  confronts 
race  problem  the  United  States  at  the  opening  of  the  new  century  is  immi 
gration.    It  is  only  within  recent  years  that  immigration  has 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century 


621 


been  a  race  problem.  Before  1880  over  four  fifths  of  all  the 
immigrants  to  the  United  States  were  from  Canada  and  the 
northern  countries  of  Europe,  which  were  allied  to  us  in  blood, 
language,  customs,  religion,  and  political  ideas.  They  were  a 
most  welcome  addition  to  our  population,  especially  in  the 
development  of  the  great  farm  lands  of  the  West.  They  assimi 
lated  rapidly  with  our  people,  cherished  our  free  institutions, 
arid  in  the  second  generation  became  the  most  American  of 
Americans.  But  since  1880  a  steady  change  has  been  going 
on  in  the  character  of  our  immigration.  The  Germans,  Irish, 
Swedes,  and  English  are  being  replaced  by  the  Hungarians, 
Poles,  Russians,  Italians,  and  other  peoples  of  southern  and 
eastern  Europe.1  Each  year  brings  a  million  of  them  —  more 
than  the  total  number  of  colonists  that  came  to  this  country 
between  the  settlement  at  Jamestown  and  the  American  Revo 
lution.  Moreover,  they  no  longer  come  impelled  by  the  desire  to 
build  up  new  homes  in  the  new  land,  but  are  brought  over  by 
the  agents  of  steamship  companies  and  large  corporations  and 
set  to  work  in  great  gangs  under  "  padrones,"  or  bosses.  Their 
low  standards  of  living  tend  to  reduce  wages,  and  their  con 
gestion  in  the  slums  of  the  great  cities  makes  breeding  places 
for  disease  and  offers  the  unscrupulous  politician  cheap  votes 
with  which  to  debauch  the  city  government.2 

1  The  following  table,  adapted  from  Adams  and  Sumner,  Labor  Problems, 
p.  73,  shows  the  change  in  the  character  of  our  immigration. 


COUNTRIES 

1870-1880 

1880-1890 

1890-1900 

1907 

Germany,  Scandinavia,  Great  Britain 

82.8% 

75-6% 

41.8% 

16.7% 

Italy,  Austria,  Russia,  Poland     .     . 

6-4% 

17-6% 

5o.i% 

75-8% 

All  other  countries    

10  8% 

68% 

8  i% 

•7    f°i 

2  In  1900  the  foreign  born  constituted  26.1  per  cent  of  the  total  of  our  city 
population,  and  only  9.4  per  cent  of  our  country  and  town  population.  In  New 
York  76.9  per  cent  of  the  inhabitants  were  of  foreign  parentage ;  in  Chicago, 
77.4  per  cent;  in  Boston,  72.2  per  cent.  In  the  Hancock  School  in  Boston  there 
were  over  1000  Hebrew  and  Italian  children  and  only  80  Americans. 


622       History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


867.  The 
restriction  of 
immigration 


868.  Amer 
ica  not  "  the 
land  of  the 
Almighty 
Dollar  "  alone 


We  are  alive  to-day  to  the  dangers  of  unrestricted  immigra 
tion.  Our  laws  are  framed  both  to  protect  American  labor 
against  the  cheap  contract  gang  labor  of  the  imported  immi 
grants,  and  to  insure  sound  citizenship  in  our  republic.  The 
convict,  the  pauper,  the  anarchist,  the  lunatic,  the  diseased,  and 
the  destitute  are  no  longer  allowed  to  enter  our  ports.  A  head 
tax  of  $4  on  each  immigrant  (included  by  the  steamship  com 
pany  in  his  passage  money)  goes  to  make  up  a  fund  to  pay 
the  expenses  of  deporting  the  unfit ;  while  a  fine  of  $100  against 
the  steamship  line  that  brings  in  a  diseased  immigrant  makes  the 
health  inspectors  on  the  ocean  liners  more  painstaking  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duty.  The  whole  question  of  immigration  is 
summed  up  in  this  :  Can  we  assimilate  and  mold  into  citizenship 
the  millions  who  are  coming  to  our  shores,  or  will  they  remain 
an  ever-increasing  body  of  aliens,  an  undigested  and  indigestible 
element  in  our  body  politic,  and  a  constant  menace  to  our  free 
institutions  ? 

The  constant  criticism  directed  against  us  by  foreign  nations 
is  that  America  is  the  land  of  dollars,  and  that  we  care  little  for 
the  encouragement  of  letters,  art,  science,  and  scholarship.  This 
criticism  is  in  a  measure  true,  and  in  a  measure  false  and  due 
to  a  misconception.  It  is  true  that  the  development  of  our 
almost  fabulous  resources  of  mineral  and  agricultural  wealth,  as 
we  have  advanced  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  has  occupied  the 
lion's  share  of  our  energies ;  and  that  the  great  "  captains  of 
industry  "  have  received  more  notice  than  great  scholars  or 
artists.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  our  foreign  critics  have 
failed  to  realize  how  much  encouragement  education  has  re 
ceived  in  this  country,  because  our  government  does  not,  like 
most  of  the  European  governments,  concern  itself  directly  with 
the  schooling  of  the  nation.  That  is  left  to  state  and  local 
authorities.  So  that  while  our  national  government  spends  less, 
our  people  actually  spend  more  per  capita  for  education  than 
any  other  nation  in  the  world.  The  public  school  is  a  revered 
institution  in  America,  on  which  is  spent  from  25  to  50  per  cent 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  623 

of  the   revenues  of  some  of  our  New  England  and  Middle 
Western  communities.1 

From  the  foundation  of  our  nation  there  have  been  diver-  869.  Pater- 
gent  opinions  as  to  the  scope  of  government  in  the  affairs  of  the  America 
people,  —  whether  it  should  simply  confine  itself  to  the  protec 
tion  of  life,  liberty,  and  property,  or  should  actively  engage  in 
the  promotion  of  industry,  the  encouragement  of  morals,  and 
the  education  of  the  people.  Fourteen  European  governments 
protect  women  and  children  from  night  work  and  excessive 
hours  of  day  work.  Germany,  through  its  institution  of  state  in 
surance,  cares  for  100,000  children  a  year  by  pensioning  widowed 
mothers.  This  kind  of  legislation  is  called  "  paternalism,"  for 
it  puts  the  state  in  a  paternal,  or  fatherly,  relation  to  the  citizen. 
Our  own  government  has  always  had  some  elements  of  pa 
ternalism.  The  protective  tariff,  for  example,  has  encouraged 
American  industries.  The  national  Pure  Food  and  Drugs  Law 
of  1906  was  passed  to  safeguard  the  health  of  our  people. 
President  Taft  has  recently  suggested  the  creation  of  "a 
national  bureau  of  health."  Such  an  institution  would  doubtless 
secure  national  laws  prohibiting  the  stupid  inhumanity  of  child 
labor,2  safeguarding  the  lives  of  workers  in  our  mines  and  on 

1  The  public-school  bill  of  the  American  people,  paid  entirely  out  of  local 
taxation,  amounts  to   some   $500,000,000   a  year.   We   have   500,000   teachers 
instructing  18,000,000  children.     Private  contributions  to  colleges  and  higher 
institutions  of  research  are  liberal  in  America.  Between  1890  and  1900,  $100,- 
ooo,ooc  were  donated  by  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Senator  Leland  Stanford,  Andrew 
Carnegie,  A.  J.  Drexel,  Seth  Low,  and  others  to  the  cause  of  higher  education. 

2  According  to  the  census  of  1900  there  were  over  700,000  children  under 
sixteen  years  working  in  the  mines,  mills,  factories,  and  sweatshops  of  the  United 
States.   John  Spargo,  in  his  "  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children,"  tells  of  cigar  factories 
in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  nicknamed  "  kindergartens  "  because  of  the  great 
number  of  little  children  employed  in  them.    He  found  children  of  six  and  seven 
working  at  2  A.M.  canning  vegetables   in  the   factories   of   New  York   state. 
Most  of  the  states  have  child-labor  laws,  but  they  are  not  enforced.    In  the 
South,  where  conditions  are  the  worst,  only  one  state  (North  Carolina)  has  a 
labor  commission,  and  frequently  there  is  no  inspection  of  the  factories  whatever, 
to  see  whether  the  laws  are  being  violated  or  not.   An  investigator  in  Augusta, 
Georgia,  found  556  children  under  twelve  years  of  age  working  in  eight  mills  in 
June,  1900.  One  physician  testified  to  amputating  the  fingers  of  over  100  children, 
whose  little  hands  had  been  caught  in  the  rapid  machinery  of  the  cotton  mills. 


624      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 


870.  The 
force  of  pub 
lic  opinion 


our  railroads,1  and  prescribing  conditions  under  which  many 
dangerous  or  exhausting  industries  should  be  conducted. 

Public  opinion  constantly  acts  on  the  government,  draw 
ing  into  the  field  of  legislation  new  subjects.  The  slave  power 
fought  for  years  against  the  introduction  into  Congress  of  any 
measure  restricting  its  extension.  The  railroads  and  corpora 
tions  opposed,  as  "  unheard  of,"  the  meddling  of  the  govern 
ment  with  their  "  business."  So  when  the  sentiment  in  favor  of 
checking  the  waste  of  our  nation's  manhood  by  strong  drink,  and 
of  our  nation's  substance  by 
the  construction  of  battleships 
costing  $12,000,000  or  more 
shall  have  grown  to  its  full 
strength,  we  may  see  the  sa 
loon  follow  the  slave  block 
into  oblivion  and  the  millions 
now  spent  on  engines  of  de 
struction  devoted  to  the  erad 
ication  of  disease  and  the 
enlightenment  of  the  mind. 

The  problems  of  a  democ- 

Sctl  Vet  U1U11    Ul  1 

our  democracy  racy  are  ever  changing  to  meet 
the  developing  needs  and  the 
unfolding  ideals  of  the  people. 

Our  problem  in  America  at  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century 
is  no  longer  that  of  George  Washington's  day,  —  to  establish 
the  forms  and  powers  of  a  republican  government ;  nor  that  of 
Andrew  Jackson's  day,  —  to  admit  to  a  full  share  in  that  govern 
ment  the  sturdy  manhood  of  the  nation ;  nor  that  of  Abraham 
Lincoln's  day,  —  to  save  the  life  of  the  Union  while  cutting  from 
it  the  cancer  of  slavery ;  nor  that  of  William  McKinley's  day,  — 
to  introduce  the  United  States  among  the  nations  which  are  to 

1  In  1907  over  6800  workers  were  killed  in  mines,  and  each  year  about  80,000 
employees  are  killed  or  injured  on  our  railroads,  chiefly  through  lack  of  safety 
appliances. 


871.  The 
salvation  of 


Breaker  Boys  at  Work  in  the  Penn 
sylvania  Mines 


Entering  the  Twentieth  Century  625 

control  the  destinies  of  the  undeveloped  races  of  the  world. 
To-day  we  are  rich,  united,  powerful.  But  the  very  material 
prosperity  which  is  our  boast  menaces  the  life  of  our  democracy. 
The  power  of  money  threatens  to  choke  the  power  of  law. 
The  spirit  of  gain  is  sacrificing  to  its  insatiable  greed  the  spirit 
of  brotherhood  and  the  very  life  of  the  toilers  of  the  land — 
even  the  joyous  years  of  tender  childhood.  Unless  we  are  to 
sink  into  ignoble  slavery  or  fall  a  prey  to  horrid  revolution,  the 
manhood  of  the  nation  must  rise  in  its  moral  strength  to  restore 
our  democratic  institutions  to  the  real  control  of  the  people,  to 
assert  the  superiority  of  men  over  machines,  and  the  value 
of  a  brotherhood  of  social  cooperation  and  mutual  goodwill 
above  the  highest  statistics  of  commercial  gain.  Our  noble  mis 
sion  is  still  to  realize  the  promise  of  the  immortal  words  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  that  "  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  and  for  the  people  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

REFERENCES 

The  Spanish  War  and  the  Philippines  :  J.  H.  LATANE,  America  as  a 
World  Power  (American  Nation  Series),  chaps,  i-x;  A.  C.  COOLIDGE, 
The  United  States  as  a  World  Power,  chaps,  v-viii;  J.  W.  FOSTER, 
American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,  chap,  xiii ;  J.  G.  ScHURMAN, 
Philippine  Affairs;  H.  P.  WILLIS,  Our  Philippine  Problem;  E.  E. 
SPARKS,  The  Expansion  of  the  American  People,  chap,  xxxvi ;  J.  D. 
LONG,  The  New  American  Navy,  chaps,  v-xii;  H.  T.  PECK,  Twenty 
Years  of  the  Republic,  chaps,  xii-xiv  ;  A.  B.  HART,  American  History 
told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  IV,,  Nos.  180-196;  The  Obvious  Orient, 
chaps,  xxiv-xxvi ;  E.  B.  ANDREWS,  The  United  States  in  o^tr  Own  Time, 
chaps,  xxvii,  xxviii ;  JAMES  BRYCE,  The  American  Commonwealth  (en 
larged  edition  of  1911),  Vol.  II,  chap,  xcvii ;  histories  of  the  Spanish 
War  by  H.  C.  LODGE,  R.  A.  ALGER,  and  HENRY  WATTERSON. 

The  Roosevelt  Policies:  LATANE,  chaps,  xii-xvi;  PECK,  chap,  xv ; 
COOLIDGE,  chaps,  xv-xix;  J.  W.  FOSTER,  A  Century  of  American  Diplo 
macy,  chap,  xii;  E.  L.  BOGART,  Economic  History  of  the  United  States, 
chap,  xxx  ;  H.  C.  LODGE  (z&.},  Addresses  and  Presidential  Messages  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  1902-1904;  FRANCIS  CURTIS,  The  Republican  Party, 
chaps,  xvi-xviii ;  F.  W.  HOLLS,  The  Peace  Conference  at  The  Hague,  chaps. 


626      History  of  the  Republic  since  the  Civil  War 

i,  ii,  viii ;  W.  F.  JOHNSON,  Four  Centuries  of  the  Panama  Canal,  chaps, 
viii-xii ;  JOHN  MITCHELL,  Organized  Labor,  chaps,  xvii,  xviii;  biogra 
phies  of  Roosevelt  by  F.  E.  LEUPP,  J.  A.  Rns,  and  W.  M.  CLEMENS. 

Present-Day  Problems  :  LATANE,  chaps,  xvii,  xviii ;  PECK,  chap,  xvi ; 
BRYCE,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xcii-xciii,  c-ciii,  cxxii ;  COOLIDGE,  chaps,  ii, 
iii,  xvii-xix ;  R.  MAYO-SMITH,  Emigration  and  Immigration,  chaps, 
i,  iii,  vii,  viii,  xii ;  P.  LEROY-BEAULIEU,  The  United  States  in  the  Twen 
tieth  Century,  Part  I ;  J.  L.  LAUGHLIN,  Industrial  America,  chaps,  ii-v, 
vii ;  A.  B.  HART,  National  Ideas  Historically  Traced  (Am.  Nation), 
chaps,  iii-ix,  xix ;  ADAMS  and  SUMNER,  Labor  Problems,  Books  II-V ; 
J.  G.  BROOKS,  The  Social  Unrest,  chaps,  vii-xii ;  JOHN  SPARGO,  Socialism  ; 
MORRIS  HILLQUIT,  Socialism  in  Theory  and  Practice ;  GIFFORD  PINCHOT, 
The  Fight  for  Conservation. 


TOPICS  FOR  SPECIAL  REPORTS 

1.  Child   Labor:  ADAMS  and  SUMNER,  pp.   19-64,   551-554;  JOHN 
SPARGO,   The  Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children,  pp.  125-217;  FELIX  ADLER, 
Child  Labor  in  the   United  States  (American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social    Science,  Vol.    XXV,   pp.   415-562);    also   series   of   articles   in 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  Vol.  XXVII ;  E.  S. 
MURPHY,  Problems  of  the  Present  South,  pp.  127-149,  and  Appendix  B. 

2.  The  Hague  Peace  Conference  of  1899:  HOLLS,  pp.  1-35,  365-372; 
LATANE,  pp.  242-254;  A.  D.  WHITE,  Autobiography,  Vol.  II,  pp.  250- 
354 ;  J.  W.  FOSTER,  Arbitration  and  the  Hague  Court. 

3.  Should  Immigration  be  restricted?   ADAMS  and  SUMNER,  pp.  80- 
iii ;  P.  F.  HALL,  Immigration,  pp.  309-323;  MAYO-SMITH,  pp.  266-- 
302  ;  HART,  pp.  42-46 ;  BRYCE,  Vol.  II,  pp.  469-490 ;  FRANCIS  WALKER, 
Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics,  Vol.  II,  pp.  417— 451- 

4.  Anti-Imperialism:   COOLIDGE,  pp.  148-171;  PECK,  pp.  610-612; 
ANDREWS,  pp.  853-858  ;  WILLIS,  pp.  23-28  ;  G.  F.  HOAR,  Autobiography 
of  Seventy   Years,  Vol.  II,  pp.  304-329 ;  EDWARD  ATKINSON,  The  Cost 
of  War  and  Warfare  from  1898  to  1904 ;  MOORFIELD  STOREY,  What 
shall  we  do  with  our  Dependencies  ? 


APPENDIX    I 

DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE 

IN  CONGRESS,  JULY  4,  1776 

A   DECLARATION  BY   THE   REPRESENTATIVES    OF   THE 

UNITED   STATES  OF  AMERICA,   IN    CONGRESS 

ASSEMBLED 

When,  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes  necessary  for 
one  people  to  dissolve  the  political  bands  which  have  connected  them 
with  another,  and  to  assume,  among  the  powers  of  the  earth,  the 
separate  and  equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  nature's 
God  entitle  them,  a  decent  respect  to  the  opinions  of  mankind  re 
quires  that  they  should  declare  the  causes  which  impel  them  to  the 
separation. 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  That  all  men  are  created 
equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalien- 
able  rights;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  That,  to  secure  these  rights,  governments  are  instituted 
among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  gov 
erned  ;  that,  whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes  destructive 
of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  to  abolish  it, 
and  to  institute  a  new  government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such 
principles,  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall 
seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness.  Prudence, 
indeed,  will  dictate  that  governments  long  established  should  not  be 
dhanged  for  light  and  transient  causes ;  and  accordingly  all  experi 
ence  hath  shown  that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to  suffer  while 
evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right  themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms 
to  which  they  are  accustomed.  But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and 
usurpations,  pursuing  invariably  the  same  object,  evinces  a  design  to 
reduce  them  under  absolute  despotism,  it  is  their  right,  it  is  their  duty, 

627 


628  Appendix  I 

to  throw  off  such  government,  and  to  provide  new  guards  for  their 
future  security.  Such  has  been  the  patient  sufferance  of  these  colo 
nies  ;  and  such  is  now  the  necessity  which  constrains  them  to  alter 
their  former  systems  of  government.  The  history  of  the  present 
King  of  Great  Britain  is  a  history  of  repeated  injuries  and  usurpa 
tions,  all  having  in  direct  object  the  establishment  of  an  absolute 
tyranny  over  these  states.  To  prove  this,  let  facts  be  submitted  to 
a  candid  world. 

He  has  refused  his  assent  to  laws  the  most  wholesome  and  neces 
sary  for  the  public  good. 

He  has  forbidden  his  governors  to  pass  laws  of  immediate  and 
pressing  importance,  unless  suspended  in  their  operation  till  his 
assent  should  be  obtained ;  and,  when  so  suspended,  he  has  utterly 
neglected  to  attend  to  them. 

He  has  refused  to  pass  other  laws  for  the  accommodation  of  large 
districts  of  people,  unless  those  people  would  relinquish  the  right  of 
representation  in  the  legislature,  —  a  right  inestimable  to  them,  and 
formidable  to  tyrants  only. 

He  has  called  together  legislative  bodies  at  places  unusual,  uncom 
fortable,  and  distant  from  the  depository  of  their  public  records,  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  fatiguing  them  into  compliance  with  his  measure. 

He  has  dissolved  representative  houses  repeatedly,  for  opposing, 
with  manly  firmness,  his  invasions  on  the  rights  of  the  people. 

He  has  refused,  for  a  long  time  after  such  dissolutions,  to  cause 
others  to  be  elected,  whereby  the  legislative  powers,  incapable  of 
annihilation,  have  returned  to  the  people  at  large  for  their  exercise ; 
the  state  remaining,  in  the  mean  time,  exposed  to  all  the  dangers  of 
invasions  from  without  and  convulsions  within. 

He  has  endeavored  to  prevent  the  population  of  these  states ;  for 
that  purpose  obstructing  the  laws  for  the  naturalization  of  foreigners, 
refusing  to  pass  others  to  encourage  their  migration  hither,  and  rais 
ing  the  conditions  of  new  appropriations  of  lands. 

He  has  obstructed  the  administration  of  justice,  by  refusing  his 
assent  to  laws  for  establishing  judiciary  powers. 

He  has  made  judges  dependent  on  his  will  alone  for  the  tenure  of 
their  offices,  and  the  amount  and  payment  of  their  salaries. 

He  has  erected  a  multitude  of  new  offices,  and  sent  hither  swarms 
of  officers  to  harass  our  people  and  eat  out  their  substance. 


Declaration  of  Independence  629 

He  has  kept  among  us  in  times  of  peace,  standing  armies,  without 
the  consent  of  our  legislatures. 

He  has  affected  to  render  the  military  independent  of,  and  supe 
rior  to,  the  civil  power. 

He  has  combined  with  others  to  subject  us  to  a  jurisdiction  foreign 
to  our  constitutions  and  unacknowledged  by  our  laws,  giving  his 
assent  to  their  acts  of  pretended  legislation : 

For  quartering  large  bodies  of  armed  troops  among  us ; 

For  protecting  them,  by  a  mock  trial,  from  punishment  for  any 
murders  which  they  should  commit  on  the  inhabitants  of  these  states ; 

For  cutting  off  our  trade  with  all  parts  of  the  world ; 

For  imposing  taxes  on  us  without  our  consent ; 

For  depriving  us,  in  many  cases,  of  the  benefits  of  trial  by  jury ; 

For  transporting  us  beyond  seas,  to  be  tried  for  pretended 
offenses ; 

For  abolishing  the  free  system  of  English  laws  in  a  neighboring 
province,  establishing  therein  an  arbitrary  government,  and  enlarg 
ing  its  boundaries,  so  as  to  render  it  at  once  an  example  and  fit  in 
strument  for  introducing  the  same  absolute  rule  into  these  colonies ; 

For  taking  away  our  charters,  abolishing  our  most  valuable  laws, 
and  altering,  fundamentally,  the  forms  of  our  governments ; 

For  suspending  our  own  legislatures,  and  declaring  themselves 
invested  with  power  to  legislate  for  us  in  all  cases  whatsoever. 

He  has  abdicated  government  here,  by  declaring  us  out  of  his 
protection  and  waging  war  against  us. 

He  has  plundered  our  seas,  ravaged  our  coasts,  burned  our  towns, 
and  destroyed  the  lives  of  our  people. 

He  is  at  this  time  transporting  large  armies  of  foreign  mercenaries 
to  complete  the  works  of  death,  desolation,  and  tyranny  already  be 
gun  with  circumstances  of  cruelty  and  perfidy  scarcely  paralleled  in  the 
most  barbarous  ages,  and  totally  unworthy  the  head  of  a  civilized  nation. 

He  has  constrained  our  fellow-citizens,  taken  captive  on  the  high 
seas,  to  bear  arms  against  their  country,  to  become  the  executioners 
of  their  friends  and  brethren,  or  to  fall  themselves  by  their  hands. 

He  has  excited  domestic  insurrection  among  us,  and  has  en 
deavored  to  bring  on  the  inhabitants  of  our  frontiers  the  merciless 
Indian  savages,  whose  known  rule  of  warfare  is  an  undistinguished 
destruction  of  all  ages,  sexes,  and  conditions. 


630  Appendix  I 

In  every  stage  of  these  oppressions  we  have  petitioned  for  redress 
in  the  most  humble  terms ;  our  repeated  petitions  have  been  answered 
only  by  repeated  injury.  A  prince  whose  character  is  thus  marked 
by  every  act  which  may  define  a  tyrant  is  unfit  to  be  the  ruler  of  a 
free  people. 

Nor  have  we  been  wanting  in  our  attentions  to  our  British  breth 
ren.  We  have  warned  them,  from  time  to  time,  of  attempts  by  their 
legislature  to  extend  an  unwarrantable  jurisdiction  over  us.  We  have 
reminded  them  of  the  circumstances  of  our  emigration  and  settlement 
here.  We  have  appealed  to  their  native  justice  and  magnanimity; 
and  we  have  conjured  them,  by  the  ties  of  our  common  kindred,  to 
disavow  these  usurpations,  which  would  inevitably  interrupt  our  con 
nections  and  correspondence.  They,  too,  have  been  deaf  to  the  voice 
of  justice  and  consanguinity.  We  must,  therefore,  acquiesce  in  the 
necessity  which  denounces  our  separation,  and  hold  them,  as  we  hold 
the  rest  of  mankind,  enemies  in  war,  in  peace  friends. 

We,  therefore,  the  representatives  of  the  United  States  of  Amer 
ica,  in  General  Congress  assembled,  appealing  to  the  Supreme  Judge 
of  the  world  for  the  rectitude  of  our  intentions,  do,  in  the  name  and 
by  the  authority  of  the  good  people  of  these  colonies,  solemnly  pub 
lish  and  declare,  That  these  united  colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought 
to  be,  free  and  independent  states ;  that  they  are  absolved  from  all 
allegiance  to  the  British  crown,  and  that  all  political  connection  be 
tween  them  and  the  state  of  Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally 
dissolved;  and  that,  as  free  and  independent  states,  they  have  full 
power  to  levy  war,  conclude  peace,  contract  alliances,  establish  com 
merce,  and  do  all  other  acts  and  things  which  independent  states  may 
of  right  do.  And,  for  the  support  of  this  declaration,  with  a  firm  re 
liance  on  the  protection  of  Divine  Providence,  we  mutually  pledge  to 
each  other  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  sacred  honor. 


Declaration  of  Independence  631 

The  foregoing  Declaration  was,  by  order  of  Congress,  engrossed 
and  signed  by  the  following  members  : 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE 
JOSIAH  BARTLETT 
WILLIAM  WHIPPLE 
MATTHEW  THORNTON 

MASSACHUSETTS  BAY 

SAMUEL  ADAMS 
JOHN  ADAMS 
ROBERT  TREAT  PAINE 
ELBRIDGE  GERRY 

RHODE  ISLAND 
STEPHEN  HOPKINS 
WILLIAM  ELLERY 

CONNECTICUT 
ROGER  SHERMAN 
SAMUEL  HUNTINGTON 
WILLIAM  WILLIAMS 
OLIVER  WOLCOTT 

NEW  YORK 
WILLIAM  FLOYD 
PHILIP  LIVINGSTON 
FRANCIS  LEWIS 
LEWIS  MORRIS 


JOHN  HANCOCK 

NEW  JERSEY 
RICHARD  STOCKTON 
JOHN  WITHERSPOON 
FRANCIS  HOPKINSON 
JOHN  HART 
ABRAHAM  CLARK 

PENNSYLVANIA 
ROBERT  MORRIS 
BENJAMIN  RUSH 
BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 
JOHN  MORTON 
GEORGE  CLYMER 
JAMES  SMITH 
GEORGE  TAYLOR 
JAMES  WILSON 
GEORGE  Ross 

DELAWARE 
CAESAR  RODNEY 
GEORGE  READ 
THOMAS  M'KEAN 

MARYLAND 

SAMUEL  CHASE 
WILLIAM  PACA 


THOMAS  STONE 
CHARLES  CARROLL,  of 
Carrollton 

VIRGINIA 
GEORGE  WYTHE 
RICHARD  HENRY  LEE 
THOMAS  JEFFERSON 
BENJAMIN  HARRISON 
THOMAS  NELSON,  JR. 
FRANCIS  LIGHTFOOT  LEK 
CARTER  BRAXTON 

NORTH  CAROLINA 
WILLIAM  HOOPER 
JOSEPH  HEWES 
JOHN  PENN 

SOUTH  CAROLINA 
EDWARD  RUTLEDGE 
THOMAS  HEYWARD,  JR. 
THOMAS  LYNCH,  JR. 
ARTHUR  MIDDLETON 

GEORGIA 
BUTTON  GWINNETT 
LYMAN  HALL 
GEORGE  WALTON 


Resolved,  That  copies  of  the  Declaration  be  sent  to  the  several 
assemblies,  conventions,  and  committees,  or  councils  of  safety  and  to 
the  several  commanding  officers  of  the  continental  troops ;  that  it  be 
proclaimed  in  each  of  the  United  States,  at  the  head  of  the  army 


APPENDIX   II 

CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES 
OF  AMERICA 

We  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a  more  per 
fect  union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for 
the  common  defence,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and 
establish  this  CONSTITUTION  for  the  United  States  of  America. 

ARTICLE  I 

SECTION  I.  All  legislative,  powers  herein  granted  shall  be  vested 
in  a  Congress  of  the  United  States,  which  shall  consist  of  a  Senate 
and  a  House  of  Representatives. 

SECT.  II.  i.  The  House  of  Representatives  shall  be  composed  of 
members  chosen  every  second  year  by  the  people  of  the  several  States, 
and  the  electors  in  each  State  shall  have  the  qualifications  requisite 
for  electors  of  the  most  numerous  branch  of  the  State  Legislature. 

2.  No  person  shall  be  a  Representative  who  shall  not  have  attained 
to  the  age  of  twenty-five  years,  and  been  seven  years  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  and  who  shall  not,  when  elected,  be  an  inhabitant  of 
that  State  in  which  he  shall  be  chosen. 

3.  Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  apportioned  among 
the  several  States  which  may  be  included  within  this  Union,  accord 
ing  to  their  respective  numbers,  which  shall  be  determined  by  adding 
to  the  whole  number  of  free  persons,  including  those  bound  to  serv 
ice  for  a  term  of  years,  and  excluding  Indians  not  taxed,  three  fifths 
of  all  other  persons.    The  actual  enumeration  shall  be  made  within 
three  years  after  the  first  meeting  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  and  within  every  subsequent  term  of  ten  years,  in  such  man 
ner  as  they  shall  by  law  direct.   The  number  of  Representatives  shall 
not  exceed  one  for  every  thirty  thousand,  but  each  State  shall  have 

632 


Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America     633 

at  least  one  representative;  and  until  such  enumeration  shall  be  made, 
the  State  of  New  Hampshire  shall  be  entitled  to  choose  three,  Massa 
chusetts  eight,  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations  one,  Con 
necticut  five,  New  York  six,  New  Jersey  four,  Pennsylvania  eight, 
Delaware  one,  Maryland  six,  Virginia  ten,  North  Carolina  five,  South 
Carolina  five,  and  Georgia  three. 

4.  When  vacancies  happen  in  the  representation  from  any  State, 
the  Executive  authority  thereof  shall  issue  writs  of  election  to  fill 
such  vacancies. 

5.  The  House  of  Representatives  shall  choose  their  Speaker  and 
other  officers ;  and  shall  have  the  sole  power  of  impeachment. 

SECT.  III.  i.  The  Senate  of  the  United  States  shall  be  composed 
of  two  Senators  from  each  State,  chosen  by  the  legislature  thereof, 
for  six  years ;  and  each  Senator  shall  have  one  vote. 

2.  Immediately  after  they  shall  be  assembled  in  consequence  of 
the  first  election,  they  shall  be  divided  as  equally  as  may  be  into 
three  classes.    The  seats  of  the  Senators  of  the  first  class  shall  be 
vacated  at  the  expiration  of  the  second -year,  of  the  second  class  at 
the  expiration  of  the  fourth  year,  and  of  the  third  class  at  the  expira 
tion  of  the  sixth  year,  so  that  one  third  may  be  chosen  every  second 
year ;  and  if  vacancies  happen  by  resignation  or  otherwise,  during 
the  recess  of  the  legislature  of  any  State,  the  Executive  thereof  may 
make  temporary  appointments  until  the  next  meeting  of  the  legisla 
ture,  which  shall  then  fill  such  vacancies. 

3.  No  person  shall  be  a  Senator  who  shall  not  have  attained  to 
the  age  of  thirty  years,  and  been  nine  years  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  and  who  shall  not,  when  elected,  be  an  inhabitant  of  that 
State  for  which  he  shall  be  chosen. 

4.  The  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  shall  be  President  of 
the  Senate,  but  shall  have  no  vote,  unless  they  be  equally  divided. 

5.  The  Senate  shall  choose  their  other  officers,  and  also  a  Presi 
dent  pro  tempore,  in  the  absence  of  the  Vice-President,  or  when  he 
shall  exercise  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States. 

6.  The  Senate  shall  have  the  sole  power  to  try  all  impeachments. 
When  sitting  for  that  purpose,  they  shall  be  on  oath  or  affirmation. 
When  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  tried,  the  Chief  Justice 
shall  preside :  and  no  person  shall  be  convicted  without  the  concur 
rence  of  two  thirds  of  the  members  present. 


634  Appendix  II 

7.  Judgment  in  cases  of  impeachment  shall  not  extend  further 
than  to  removal  from  office,  and  disqualification  to  hold  and  enjoy 
any  office  of  honor,  trust  or  profit  under  the  United  States :  but  the 
party  convicted  shall  nevertheless  be  liable  and  subject  to  indictment, 
trial,  judgment  and  punishment,  according  to  law. 

SECT.  IV.  i.  The  times,  places  and  manner  of  holding  elections 
for  Senators  and  Representatives  shall  be  prescribed  in  each  State 
by  the  legislature  thereof ;  but  the  Congress  may  at  any  time  by  law 
make  or  alter  such  regulations,  except  as  to  the  places  of  choosing 
Senators. 

2.  The  Congress  shall  assemble  at  least  once  in  every  year,  and 
such  meeting  shall  be  on  the  first  Monday  in  December,  unless  they 
shall  by  law  appoint  a  different  day. 

SECT.  V.  i.  Each  house  shall  be  the  judge  of  the  elections,  re 
turns  and  qualifications  of  its  own  members,  and  a  majority  of  each 
shall  constitute  a  quorum  to  do  business ;  but  a  smaller  number  may 
adjourn  from  day  to  day,  and  may  be  authorized  to  compel  the  at 
tendance  of  absent  members,  in  such  manner,  and  under  such  pen 
alties,  as  each  house  may  provide. 

2.  Each  house  may  determine  the  rules  of  its  proceedings,  punish 
its  members  for  disorderly  behavior,  and  with  the  concurrence  of  two 
thirds,  expel  a  member. 

3.  Each  house  shall  keep  a  journal  of  its  proceedings,  and  from 
time  to  time  publish  the  same,  excepting  such  parts  as  may  in  their 
judgment  require  secrecy ;  and  the  yeas  and  nays  of  the  members  of 
either  house  on  any  question  shall,  at  the  desire  of  one  fifth  of  those 
present,  be  entered  on  the  journal. 

4.  Neither  house,  during  the  session  of  Congress,  shall,  without 
the  consent  of  the  other,  adjourn  for  more  than  three  days,  nor  to 
any  other  place  than  that  in  which  the  two  houses  shall  be  sitting. 

SECT.  VI.  i.  The  Senators  and  Representatives  shall  receive  a 
compensation  for  their  services,  to  be  ascertained  by  law  and  paid  out 
of  the  treasury  of  the  United  States.  They  shall  in  all  cases  except 
treason,  felony  and  breach  of  the  peace,  be  privileged  from  arrest 
during  their  attendance  at  the  session  of  their  respective  houses, 
and  in  going  to  and  returning  from  the  same ;  and  for  any  speech 
or  debate  in  either  house,  they  shall  not  be  questioned  in  any  : 
other  place. 


Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America     635 

2.  No  Senator  or  Representative  shall,  during  the  time  for  which 
he  was  elected,  be  appointed  to  any  civil  office  under  the  authority 
of  the  United  States,  which  shall  have  been  created,  or  the  emolu 
ments  whereof  shall  have  been  increased,  during  such  time ;  and  no 
person  holding  any  office  under  the  United  States  shall  be  a  member 
of  either  house  during  his  continuance  in  office. 

SECT.  VII.  i.  All  bills  for  raising  revenue  shall  originate  in  the 
House  of  Representatives ;  but  the  Senate  may  propose  or  concur 
with  amendments  as  on  other  bills. 

2.  Every  bill  which  shall  have  passed  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  and  the  Senate,  shall,  before  it  become  a  law,  be  presented  to 
the  President  of  the  United  States;  if  he  approve  he  shall  sign  it, 
but  if  not  he  shall  return  it  with  his  objections  to  that  house  in  which 
it  shall  have  originated,  who  shall  enter  the  objections  at  large  on 
their  journal,  and  proceed  to  reconsider  it.    If  after  such  reconsidera 
tion  two  thirds  of  that  house  shall  agree  to  pass  the  bill,  it  shall  be 
sent,  together  with  the  objections,  to  the  other  house,  by  which  it 
shall  likewise  be  reconsidered,  and,  if  approved  by  two  thirds  of  that 
house,  it  shall  become  a  law.    But  in  all  such  cases  the  votes  of  both 
houses  shall  be  determined  by  yeas  and  nays,  and  the  names  of  the 
persons  voting  for  and  against  the  bill  shall  be  entered  on  the  jour 
nal  of  each  house  respectively.    If  any  bill  shall  not  be  returned  by 
the  President  within  ten  days  (Sundays  excepted)  after  it  shall  have 
been  presented  to  him,  the  same  shall  be  a  law,  in  like  manner  as  if 
he  had  signed  it,  unless  the  Congress  by  their  adjournment  prevent 
its  return,  in  which  case  it  shall  not  be  a  law. 

3.  Every  order,  resolution,  or  vote  to  which  the  concurrence  of 
the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  may  be  necessary  (except 
on  a  question  of  adjournment)  shall  be  presented  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States  ;  and  before  the  same  shall  take  effect,  shall  be 
approved  by  him,  or  being  disapproved  by  him,  shall  be  repassed  by 
two  thirds  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  according  to 
the  rules  and  limitations  prescribed  in  the  case  of  a  bill. 

SECT.  VIII.  The  Congress  shall  have  power 

i.  To  lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and  excises,  to  pay 
the  debts  and  provide  for  the  common  defence  and  general  welfare 
of  the  United  States;  but  all  duties,  imposts  and  excises  shall  be 
uniform  throughout  the  United  States  ; 


636  Appendix  II 

2.  To  borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the  United  States ; 

3.  To  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and  among  the 
several  States,  and  with  the  Indian  tribes ; 

4.  To    establish    an    uniform    rule    of    naturalization,   and    uni 
form  laws  on  the  subject  of  bankruptcies  throughout  the  United 
States ; 

5.  To  coin  money,  regulate  the  value  thereof,  and  of  foreign  coin, 
and  fix  the  standard  of  weights  and  measures ; 

6.  To  provide  for  the  punishment  of  counterfeiting  the  securities 
and  current  coin  of  the  United  States ; 

7.  To  establish  post  offices  and  post  roads ; 

8.  To  promote  the  progress  of  science  and  useful  arts  by  secur 
ing  for  limited  times  to  authors  and  inventors  the  exclusive  right 
to  their  respective  writings  and  discoveries ; 

9.  To  constitute  tribunals  inferior  to  the  Supreme  Court ; 

10.  To  define  and  punish  piracies  and  felonies  committed  on  the 
high  seas  and  offences  against  the  law  of  nations ; 

1 1 .  To  declare  war,  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  and  make 
rules  concerning  captures  on  land  and  water ; 

1 2.  To  raise  and  support  armies,  but  no  appropriation  of  money 
to  that  use  shall  be  for  a  longer  term  than  two  years ; 

13.  To  provide  and  maintain  a  navy; 

14.  To  make  rules  for  the  government  and  regulation  of  the  land 
and  naval  forces ; 

15.  To  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia  to  execute  the  laws  of 
the  Union,  suppress  insurrections,  and  repel  invasions ; 

1 6.  To  provide  for  organizing,  arming  and  disciplining  the  militia, 
and  for  governing  such  part  of  them  as  may  be  employed  in  the 
service  of  the  United  States,  reserving  to  the  States  respectively  the 
appointment  of  the  officers,  and  the  authority  of  training  the  militia 
according  to  the  discipline  prescribed  by  Congress ; 

1 7.  To  exercise  exclusive  legislation  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  over 
such  district  (not  exceeding  ten  miles  square)  as  may,  by  cession  of 
particular  States,  and  the  acceptance  of  Congress,  become  the  seat 
of  government  of  the  United  States,  and  to  exercise  like  authority 
over  all  places  purchased  by  the  consent  of  the  legislature  of  the 
State,  in  which  the  same  shall  be,  for  the  erection  of  forts,  magazines, 
arsenals,  dock-yards,  and  other  needful  buildings ;  —  and 


Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America     637 

1 8.  To  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for 
carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing  powers,  and  all  other  powers 
vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
or  in  any  department  or  office  thereof. 

SECT.  IX.  i.  The  migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as 
any  of  the  States  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit  shall  not 
be  prohibited  by  the  Congress  prior  to  the  year  1 808  ;  but  a  tax  or 
duty  may  be  imposed  on  such  importation,  not  exceeding  $10  for 
each  person. 

2.  The  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  sus 
pended,  unless  when  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion  the  public 
safety  may  require  it. 

3.  No  bill  of  attainder  or  ex  post  facto  law  shall  be  passed. 

4.  No  capitation,  or  other  direct,  tax  shall  be  laid,  unless  in  pro 
portion  to  the  census  or  enumeration  herein  before  directed  to  be 
taken. 

5.  No  tax  or  duty  shall  be  laid  on  articles  exported  from  any 
State. 

6.  No  preference  shall  be  given  by  any  regulation  of  commerce 
or  revenue  to  the  ports  of  one  State  over  those  of  another :  nor 
shall  vessels  bound  to,  or  from,  one  State,  be  obliged  to  enter,  clear, 
or  pay  duties  in  another. 

7.  No  money  shall  be  drawn  from  the  treasury,  but  in  consequence 
of  appropriations  made  by  law ;  and  a  regular  statement  and  account 
of  the  receipts  and  expenditures  of  all  public  money  shall  be  pub 
lished  from  time  to  time. 

8.  No  title  of  nobility  shall  be  granted  by  the  United  States :  and 
no  person  holding  any  office  of  profit  or  trust  under  them,  shall, 
without  the  consent  of  the  Congress,  accept  of  any  present,  emolu 
ment,  office,  or  title,  of  any  kind  whatever,  from  any  king,  prince, 
or  foreign  state. 

SECT.  X.  i .  No  State  shall  enter  into  any  treaty,  alliance,  or  con 
federation  ;  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal ;  coin  money ;  emit 
bills  of  credit ;  make  anything  but  gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender  in 
payment  of  debts  ;  pass  any  bill  of  attainder,  ex  post  facto  law,  or  law 
impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts,  or  grant  any  title  of  nobility. 

2.  No  State  shall,  without  the  consent  of  the  Congress,  lay  any 
imposts  or  duties  on  imports  or  exports,  except  what  may  be 


638  Appendix  II 

absolutely  necessary  for  executing  its  inspection  laws :  and  the  net 
produce  of  all  duties  and  imposts,  laid  by  any  State  on  imports  or 
exports,  shall  be  for  the  use  of  the  treasury  of  the  United  States ; 
and  all  such  laws  shall  be  subject  to  the  revision  and  control  of 
the  Congress. 

3.  No  State  shall,  without  the  consent  of  Congress,  lay  any  duty 
of  tonnage,  keep  troops,  or  ships  of  war  in  time  of  peace,  enter  into 
any  agreement  or  compact  with  another  State,  or  with  a  foreign 
power,  or  engage  in  war,  unless  actually  invaded,  or  in  such  im 
minent  danger  as  will  not  admit  of  delay. 

ARTICLE  II 

SECTION  I.  i.  The  executive  power  shall  be  vested  in  a  President 
of  the  United  States  of  America.  He  shall  hold  his  office  during  the 
term  of  four  years,  and  together  with  the  Vice-President,  chosen 
for  the  same  term,  be  elected  as  follows : 

2.  Each  State  shall  appoint,  in  such  manner  as  the  legislature 
thereof  may  direct,  a  number  of  electors,  equal  to  the  whole  num 
ber  of  Senators  and  Representatives  to  which  the  State  may  be 
entitled  in  the  Congress;  but  no  Senator  or  Representative,  or 
person  holding  an  office  of  trust  or  profit  under  the  United  States, 
shall  be  appointed  an  elector. 

[The  electors  shall  meet  in  their  respective  States,  and  vote  by 
ballot  for  two  persons,  of  whom  one  at  least  shall  not  be  an  inhab 
itant  of  the  same  State  with  themselves.  And  they  shall  make  a  list 
of  all  the  persons  voted  for,  and  of  the  number  of  votes  for  each; 
which  list  they  shall  sign  and  certify,  and  transmit  sealed  to  the  seat 
of  government  of  the  United  States,  directed  to  the  President  of  the 
Senate.  The  President  of  the  Senate  shall,  in  the  presence  of  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  open  all  the  certificates,  and 
the  votes  shall  then  be  counted.  The  person  having  the  greatest 
number  of  votes  shall  be  the  President,  if  such  number  be  a  majority 
of  the  whole  number  of  electors  appointed ;  and  if  there  be  more 
than  one  who  have  such  majority,  and  have  an  equal  number  of 
votes,  then  the  House  of  Representatives  shall  immediately  choose 
by  ballot  one  of  them  for  President ;  and  if  no  person  have  a  majority, 
then  from  the  five  highest  on  the  list  the  said  house  shall  in  like  manner 


Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America     639 

choose  the  President.  But  in  choosing  the  President  the  votes 
shall  be  taken  by  States,  the  representation  from  each  State  having 
one  vote ;  a  quorum  for  this  purpose  shall  consist  of  a  member  or 
members  from  two  thirds  of  the  States,  and  a  majority  of  all  the 
States  shall  be  necessary  to  a  choice.  In  every  case,  after  the  choice 
of  the  President,  the  person  having  the  greatest  number  of  votes  of 
the  electors  shall  be  the  Vice-President.  But  if  there  should  remain 
two  or  more  who  have  equal  votes,  the  Senate  shall  choose  from 
them  by  ballot  the  Vice-President.] 

3.  The  Congress  may  determine  the  time  of  choosing  the  electors, 
and  the  day  on  which  they  shall  give  their  votes ;  which  day  shall 
be  the  same  throughout  the  United  States. 

4.  No  person  except  a  natural  born  citizen,  or  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  this  Constitution,  shall 
be  eligible  to  the  office  of  President ;  neither  shall  any  person  be 
eligible  to  that  office  who  shall  not  have  attained  to  the  age  of  thirty- 
five  years,  and  been  fourteen  years  a  resident  within  the  United 
States. 

5.  In  case  of  the  removal  of  the  President  from  office  or  of  his 
death,  resignation,  or  inability  to  discharge  the  powers  and  duties  of 
the  said  office,  the  same  shall  devolve  on  the  Vice-President,  and  the 
Congress  may  by  law  provide  for  the  case  of  removal,  death,  resig 
nation,  or  inability,  both  of  the  President  and  Vice-President,  de 
claring  what  officer  shall  then  act  as  President,  arid  such  officer  shall 
act  accordingly,  until  the  disability  be  removed,  or  a  President  shall 
be  elected. 

6.  The  President  shall,  at  stated  times,  receive  for  his  services, 
a  compensation,  which  shall  neither  be    increased  nor  diminished 
during  the  period  for  which  he  shall  have  been  elected,  and  he  shall 
not  receive  within  that  period  any  other  emolument  from  the  United 
States,  or  any  of  them. 

7.  Before  he  enter  on  the  execution  of  his  office,  he  shall  take 
the  following  oath  or  affirmation  :  —  "  I  do  solemnly  swear  (or  affirm) 
that  I  will  faithfully  execute  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  will  to    the  best  of   my    ability,  preserve,  protect  and 
defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

SECT.  II.    i.  The  President  shall  be  commander  in  chief  of  the 
army  and  navy  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  militia  of  the  several 


640  Appendix  II 

States,  when  called  into  the  actual  service  of  the  United  States ;  he 
may  require  the  opinion,  in  writing,  of  the  principal  officer  in  each 
of  the  executive  departments,  upon  any  subject  relating  to  the  duties 
of  their  respective  offices,  and  he  shall  have  power  to  grant  reprieves 
and  pardons  for  offences  against  the  United  States,  except  in  cases 
of  impeachment. 

2.  He  shall  have  power,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 
the  Senate,  to  make  treaties,  provided  two  thirds  of  the  Senators 
present  concur ;  and  he  shall  nominate,  and  by  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Senate,  shall  appoint  ambassadors,  other  public 
ministers  and  consuls,  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  all  other 
officers  of  the  United  States,  whose  appointments  are  not  herein 
otherwise  provided  for,  and  which  shall  be  established  by  law :  but 
the  Congress  may  by  law  vest  the  appointment  of   such    inferior 
officers,  as  they  think  proper,  in  the  President  alone,  in  the  courts 
of  law,  or  in  the  heads  of  departments. 

3.  The  President  shall  have  power  to  fill  up  all  vacancies  that 
may  happen  during  the  recess  of  the  Senate,  by  granting  commis 
sions  which  shall  expire  at  the  end  of  their  next  session. 

SECT.  III.  He  shall  from  time  to  time  give  to  the  Congress  in 
formation  of  the  state  of  the  Union,  and  recommend  to  their  con 
sideration  such  measures  as  he  shall  judge  necessary  and  expedient ; 
he  may,  on  extraordinary  occasions,  convene  both  houses,  or  either 
of  them,  and  in  case  of  disagreement  between  them,  with  respect  to 
the  time  of  adjournment,  he  may  adjourn  them  to  such  time  as  he 
shall  think  proper;  he  shall  receive  ambassadors  and  other  public 
ministers;  he  shall  take  care  that  the  laws  be  faithfully  executed, 
and  shall  commission  all  the  officers  of  the  United  States. 

SECT.  IV.  The  President,  Vice-President  and  all  civil  officers  of 
the  United  States,  shall  be  removed  from  office  on  impeachment 
for,  and  conviction  of,  treason,  bribery,  or  other  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE   III 

SECTION  I.  i.  The  judicial  power  of  the  United  States,  shall  be 
vested  in  one  Supreme  Court,  and  in  such  inferior  courts  as  Con 
gress  may  from  time  to  time  ordain  and  establish.  The  judges,  both 
of  the  Supreme  and  inferior  courts,  shall  hold  their  offices  during 


Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America     641 

good  behavior,  and  shall,  at  stated  times,  receive  for  their  services,  a 
compensation,  which  shall  not  be  diminished  during  their  continuance 
in  office. 

SECT.  II.  i.  The  judicial  power  shall  extend  to  all  cases,  in  law 
and  equity,  arising  under  this  Constitution,  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  and  treaties  made  or  which  shall  be  made,  under  their  authority; 

—  to  all  cases  affecting  ambassadors,  other  public  ministers  and  con 
suls  ;  —  to  all  cases  of  admiralty  jurisdiction ;  —  to  controversies  to 
which  the  United  States  shall  be  a  party ;  —  to  controversies  between 
two  or  more  States  ;  —  between  a  State  and  citizens  of  another  State ; 

—  between  citizens  of  different  States  ;  — between  citizens  of  the  same 
State  claiming  lands  under  grants  of  different  States,  and  between  a 
State,  or  the  citizens  thereof,  and  foreign  states,  citizens  or  subjects. 

2.  In  all  cases  affecting  ambassadors,  other  public  ministers  and 
consuls,  and  those  in  which  a  State  shall  be  a  party,  the  Supreme 
Court  shall  have  original  jurisdiction.    In  all  the  other  cases  before 
mentioned,  the  Supreme  Court  shall  have  appellate  jurisdiction,  both 
as  to  law  and  fact,  with  such  exceptions,  and  under  such  regulations 
as  the  Congress  shall  make. 

3.  The  trial  of  all  crimes,  except  in  cases  of  impeachment,  shall 
be  by  jury ;   and  such  trial  shall  be  held  in  the  State  where  the  said 
crimes  shall  have  been  committed ;  but  when  not  committed  within 
any  State,  the  trial  shall  be  at  such  place  or  places  as  the  Congress 
may  by  law  have  directed. 

SECT.  III.  i.  Treason  against  the  United  States  shall  consist 
only  in  levying  war  against  them,  or  in  adhering  to  their  enemies, 
giving  them  aid  and  comfort.  No  person  shall  be  convicted  of  treason 
unless  on  the  testimony  of  two  witnesses  to  the  same  overt  act,  or  on 
confession  in  open  court. 

2.  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  declare  the  punishment  of 
treason,  but  no  attainder  of  treason  shall  work  corruption  of  blood, 
or  forfeiture  except  during  the  life  of  the  person  attainted. 

ARTICLE  IV 

SECTION  I.  Full  faith  and  credit  shall  be  given  in  each  State  to 
the  public  acts,  records,  and  judicial  proceedings  of  every  other  State. 
And  the  Congress  may  by  general  laws  prescribe  the  manner  in 


642  Appendix  II 

which  such  acts,  records,  and  proceedings  shall  be  proved,  and  the 
effect  thereof. 

SECT.  II.  i.  The  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all 
privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States. 

2.  A  person  charged  in  any  State  with  treason,  felony,  or  other 
crime,  who  shall  flee  from  justice,  and  be  found  in  another  State, 
shall  on  demand  of  the  executive  authority  of  the  State  from  which 
he  fled,  be  delivered  up,  to  be  removed  to  the  State  having  jurisdiction 
of  the  crime. 

3.  No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws 
thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any  law  or 
regulation  therein,  be  discharged    from  such  service  or  labor,  but 
shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or 
labor  may  be  due. 

SECT.  III.  i.  New  States  may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress  into 
this  Union ;  but  no  new  State  shall  be  formed  or  erected  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  any  other  State  ;  nor  any  State  be  formed  by  the  junc 
tion  of  two  or  more  States,  or  parts  of  States,  without  the  consent 
of  the  legislatures  of  the  States  concerned  as  well  as  of  the  Congress. 

2.  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  dispose  of  and  make  all 
needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  or  other  property 
belonging  to  the  United  States;  and  nothing  in  this  Constitution 
shall  be  so  construed  as  to  prejudice  any  claims  of  the  United  States, 
or  of  any  particular  State. 

SECT.  IV.  The  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in 
this  Union  a  republican  form  of  government,  and  shall  protect  each 
of  them  against  invasion ;  and  on  application  of  the  legislature,  or 
of  the  executive  (when  the  legislature  cannot  be  convened)  against 
domestic  violence. 

ARTICLE  V 

The  Congress,  whenever  two  thirds  of  both  houses  shall  deem  it 
necessary,  shall  propose  amendments  to  this  Constitution,  or,  on  the 
application  of  the  legislatures  of  two  thirds  of  the  several  States, 
shall  call  a  convention  for  proposing  amendments,  which,  in  either 
case  shall  be  valid  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  part  of  this  Consti 
tution,  when  ratified  by  the  legislatures  of  three  fourths  of  the  sev 
eral  States,  or  by  conventions  in  three  fourths  thereof,  as  the  one  or 


Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America     643 

the  other  mode  of  ratification  may  be  proposed  by  the  Congress ; 
provided  that  no  amendments  which  may  be  made  prior  to  the  year 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eight  shall  in  any  manner  affect  the 
first  and  fourth  clauses  in  the  ninth  section  of  the  first  article ;  and 
that  no  State,  without  its  consent,  shall  be  deprived  of  its  equal 
suffrage  in  the  Senate. 

ARTICLE  VI 

1.  All  debts  contracted  and  engagements  entered  into,  before  the 
adoption  of  this  Constitution,  shall  be  as  valid  against  the  United 
States  under  this  Constitution,  as  under  the  Confederation. 

2.  This  Constitution,  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States  which 
shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof ;  and  all  treaties  made,  or  which 
shall  be  made,  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land ;  and  the  judges  in  every  State  shall  be 
bound  thereby,  anything  in  the  Constitution  or  laws  of  any  State  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

3.  The  Senators  and  Representatives  before  mentioned,  and  the 
members  of  the  several  State  legislatures,  and  all  executive  and  judi 
cial  officers,  both  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  several  States,  shall 
be  bound  by  oath  or  affirmation,  to  support  this  Constitution ;  but 
no  religious  test  shall  ever  be  required  as  a  qualification  to  any  office 
or  public  trust  under  the  United  States. 

ARTICLE  VII 

The  ratification  of  the  conventions  of  nine  States,  shall  be  suffi 
cient  for  the  establishment  of  this  Constitution  between  the  States 
so  ratifying  the  same. 

Done  in  Convention  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  States  present, 
the  seventeenth  day  of  September  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  eighty-seven  and  of  the  Independ 
ence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  twelfth.  In  witness 
whereof  we  have  hereunto  subscribed  our  names. 

[Signed  by]  G°  WASHINGTON 

Presidt  and  Depitty  from  Virginia- 


644 


Appendix  II 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE 

JOHN  LANGDON 
NICHOLAS  OILMAN 

MASSACHUSETTS 
NATHANIEL  GORHAM 
RUFUS  KING 

CONNECTICUT 

WM.  SAML.  JOHNSON 
ROGER  SHERMAN 

NEW  YORK 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

NEW  JERSEY 
WIL:  LIVINGSTON 
DAVID  BREARLEY 
WM  :   PATERSON 
JONA:  DAYTON 


PENNSYLVANIA 
B  FRANKLIN 
THOMAS  MIFFLIN 
ROBT.  MORRIS 
GEO.  CLYMER 
THO.  FITZ  SIMONS 
JARED  INGERSOLL 
JAMES  WILSON 
Gouv  MORRIS 

DELAWARE 
GEO:  READ 

GUNNING  BEDFORD,  JUN. 
JOHN  DICKINSON 
RICHARD  BASSETT 
JACO  :  BROOM 


VIRGINIA 
JOHN  BLAIR 
JAMES  MADISON,  JR. 

NORTH  CAROLINA 
WM.  BLOUNT 
RICHD.  DOBBS  SPAIGHT 
Hu  WILLIAMSON 

SOUTH  CAROLINA 
J.  RUTLEDGE 
CHARLES  COTESWORTH 

PlNCKNEY 

CHARLES  PINCKNEY 
PIERCE  BUTLER 


MARYLAND  GEORGIA 

JAMES  MCHENRY  WILLIAM  FEN 

DAN  OF  ST.  THOS.  JENIFER  ABR  BALDWIN 

DANL  CARROLL 

Attest :  WILLIAM  JACKSON,  Secretary 


ARTICLES  IN  ADDITION  TO  AND  AMENDMENT  OF  THE  CONSTITU 
TION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA,  PROPOSED  BY  CON 
GRESS,  AND  RATIFIED  BY  THE  LEGISLATURES  OF  THE  SEVERAL 

STATES,  PURSUANT  TO  THE  FIFTH  ARTICLE  OF  THE  ORIGINAL 
CONSTITUTION 

ARTICLE  I.  Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an  establish 
ment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof ;  or  abridg 
ing  the  freedom  of  speech,  or  of  the  press ;  or  the  right  of  the  people 
peaceably  to  assemble,  and  to  petition  the  government  for  a  redress 
of  grievances. 

ARTICLE  II.  A  well-regulated  militia,  being  necessary  to  the  se 
curity  of  a  free  State,  the  right  of  the  people  to  keep  and  bear 
arms,  shall  not  be  infringed. 

ARTICLE  III.  No  soldier  shall,  in  time  of  peace  be  quartered  in 
any  house  without  the  consent  of  the  owner,  nor  in  time  of  war,  but 
in  a  manner  to  be  prescribed  by  law. 

ARTICLE  IV.  The  right  of  the  people  to  be  secure  in  their  per 
sons,  houses,  papers,  and  effects,  against  unreasonable  searches  and 
seizures,  shall  not  be  violated,  and  no  warrants  shall  issue  but  upon 
probable  cause,  supported  by  oath  or  affirmation,  and  particularly 


Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America     645 

describing  the  place  to  be  searched,  and  the  persons  or  things  to 
be  seized. 

ARTICLE  V.  No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital,  or 
otherwise  infamous  crime,  unless  on  a  presentment  or  indictment  of 
a  grand  jury  except  in  cases  arising  in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  or 
in  the  militia,  when  in  actual  service  in  time  of  war  or  public  danger; 
nor  shall  any  person  be  subject  for  the  same  offence  to  be  twice  put 
in  jeopardy  of  life  or  limb ;  nor  shall  be  compelled  in  any  criminal 
case  to  be  a  witness  against  himself,  nor  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty, 
or  property,  without  due  process  of  law ;  nor  shall  private  property 
be  taken  for  public  use  without  just  compensation. 

ARTICLE  VI.  In  all  criminal  prosecutions  the  accused  shall  enjoy 
the  right  to  a  speedy  and  public  trial,  by  an  impartial  jury  of  the  State 
and  district  wherein  the  crime  shall  have  been  committed,  which  dis 
trict  shall  have  been  previously  ascertained  by  law,  and  to  be  informed 
of  the  nature  and  cause  of  the  accusation ;  to  be  confronted  with  the 
witnesses  against  him;  to  have  compulsory  process  for  obtaining 
witnesses  in  his  favor,  and  to  have  the  assistance  of  counsel  for  his 
defence. 

ARTICLE  VII.  In  suits  at  common  law,  where  the  value  in  contro 
versy  shall  exceed  twenty  dollars,  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  shall  be 
preserved,  and  no  fact  tried  by  a  jury  shall  be  otherwise  re-exam 
ined  in  any  court  of  the  United  States,  than  according  to  the  rules 
of  the  common  law. 

ARTICLE  VIII.  Excessive  bail  shall  not  be  required,  nor  excessive 
fines  imposed,  nor  cruel  and  unusual  punishments  inflicted. 

ARTICLE  IX.  The  enumeration  in  the  Constitution,  of  certain 
rights,  shall  not  be  construed  to  deny  or  disparage  others  retained 
by  the  people. 

ARTICLE  X.  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by 
the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,  are  reserved  to 
the  States  respectively,  or  to  the  people. 

ARTICLE  XI.  The  judicial  power  of  the  United  States  shall  not 
be  construed  to  extend  to  any  suit  in  law  or  equity,  commenced  or 
prosecuted  against  one  of  the  United  States  by  citizens  of  another 
State,  or  by  citizens  or  subjects  of  any  foreign  state. 

ARTICLE  XII.  The  electors  shall  meet  in  their  respective  States, 
and  vote  by  ballot  for  President  and  Vice-President,  one  of  whom, 


646  Appendix  II 

at  least,  shall  not  be  an  inhabitant  of  the  same  State  with  them 
selves;  they  shall  name  in  their  ballots  the  person  voted  for  as 
President,  and  in  distinct  ballots  the  person  voted  for  as  Vice-Pres- 
ident,  and  they  shall  make  distinct  lists  of  all  persons  voted  for  as 
President,  and  of  all  persons  voted  for  as  Vice-President,  and  of  the 
number  of  votes  for  each,  which  lists  they  shall  sign  and  certify,  and 
transmit  sealed  to  the  seat  of  government  of  the  United  States, 
directed  to  the  President  of  the  Senate ;  —  the  President  of  the 
Senate  shall,  in  the  presence  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  open  all  the  certificates  and  the  votes  shall  then  be 
counted ;  —  the  person  having  the  greatest  number  of  votes  for 
President  shall  be  the  President,  if  such  number  be  a  majority  of 
the  whole  number  of  electors  appointed ;  and  if  no  person  have  such 
majority,  then  from  the  persons  having  the  highest  numbers  not 
exceeding  three  [on  the  list  of  those  voted  for  as  President,  the 
House  of  Representatives  shall  choose  immediately,  by  ballot,  the 
President.  But  in  choosing  the  President,  the  votes  shall  be  taken 
by  States,  the  representation  from  each  State  having  one  vote;  a 
quorum  for  this  purpose  shall  consist  of  a  member  or  members  from 
two  thirds  of  the  States,  and  a  majority  of  all  the  States  shall  be 
necessary  to  a  choice.  And  if  the  House  of  Representatives  shall 
not  choose  a  President  whenever  the  right  of  choice  shall  devolve 
upon  them,  before  the  fourth  day  of  March  next  following,  then  the 
Vice-President  shall  act  as  President,  as  in  the  case  of  the  death  or 
other  constitutional  disability  of  the  President.  —  The  person  having 
the  greatest  number  of  votes  as  Vice-President,  shall  be  the  Vice- 
President,  if  such  number  be  a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of  elec 
tors  appointed,  and  if  no  person  have  a  majority,  then  from  the  two 
highest  numbers  on  the  list,  the  Senate  shall  choose  the  Vice-Presi 
dent  ;  a  quorum  for  the  purpose  shall  consist  of  two  thirds  of  the 
whole  number  of  Senators,  and  a  majority  of  the  whole  number  shall 
be  necessary  to  a  choice.  But  no  person  constitutionally  ineligible  to 
the  office  of  President  shall  be  eligible  to  that  of  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States. 

ARTICLE  XIII.  Section  i.  Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servi 
tude,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime  whereof  the  party  shall  have 
been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  within  the  United  States,  or  any 
place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction. 


Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America     647 

Section  2.  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  article  by 
appropriate  legislation. 

ARTICLE  XIV.  Section  i.  All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the 
United  States,  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of 
the  United  States  and  of  the  State  wherein  they  reside.  No  State 
shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge  the  privileges  or 
immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States ;  nor  shall  any  State  de 
prive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of 
law ;  nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protec 
tion  of  the  laws. 

Section  2.  Representatives  shall  be  apportioned  among  the  several 
States  according  to  their  respective  numbers,  counting  the  whole 
number  of  persons  in  each  State,  excluding  Indians  not  taxed.  But 
when  the  right  to  vote  at  any  election  for  the  choice  of  Electors  for 
President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  Representatives 
in  Congress,  the  executive  and  judicial  officers  of  a  State,  or  the 
members  of  the  legislature  thereof,  is  denied  to  any  of  the  male  in 
habitants  of  such  State,  being  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  way  abridged,  except  for  participation 
in  rebellion,  or  other  crime,  the  basis  of  representation  therein  shall 
be  reduced  in  the  proportion  which  the  number  of  such  male  citizens 
shall  bear  to  the  whole  number  of  male  citizens  twenty-one  years  of 
age  in  such  State. 

Section  3.  No  person  shall  be  a  Senator  or  Representative  in 
Congress,  or  Elector  of  President  and  Vice-President,  or  hold  any 
office,  civil  or  military,  under  the  United  States,  or  under  any  State, 
who,  having  previously  taken  an  oath,  as  a  member  of  Congress,  or 
as  an  officer  of  the  United  States,  or  as  a  member  of  any  State  legis 
lature,  or  as  an  executive  or  judicial  officer  of  any  State,  to  support 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  shall  have  engaged  in  insur 
rection  or  rebellion  against  the  same,  or  given  aid  or  comfort  to  the 
enemies  thereof.  But  Congress  may  by  a  vote  of  t^fo  thirds  of  each 
house,  remove  such  disability. 

Section  4.  The  validity  of  the  public  debt  of  the  United  States, 
authorized  by  law,  including  debts  incurred  for  payment  of  pensions 
and  bounties  for  services  in  suppressing  insurrection  or  rebellion, 
shall  not  be  questioned.  But  neither  the  United  States  nor  any 
State  shall  assume  or  pay  any  debt  or  obligation  incurred  in  aid  of 


648  Appendix  II 

insurrection  or  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  or  any  claim  for 
the  loss  or  emancipation  of  any  slave ;  but  all  such  debts,  obliga 
tions,  and  claims  shall  be  held  illegal  and  void. 

Section  5.  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  by  appro 
priate  legislation  the  provisions  of  this  article. 

ARTICLE  XV.  Section  I.  The  right  of  citizens  of  the  United 
States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United  States 
or  any  State  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of 
servitude. 

Section  2.  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  article 
by  appropriate  legislation. 


INDEX 


Abolitionists,  3 1 6-3  2  5 ;  societies  of, 
320,  321  ftn.  i  ;  in  Congress,  321; 
petitions  of,  322  ;  contest  over 
mails,  323,  327  ;  on  annexation 
of  Texas,  348  ;  strengthened  in 
1854,  384 

Acadia,  90,  93,  97  ftn.  2 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  493 ftn.  i, 
498,  499 

Adams,  John,  leader  in  Massachu 
setts,  121  ;  loyalty  to  England, 
1 29 ;  mission  to  Paris,  1 50  ;  treats 
with  Pitt,  152  ;  defeats  noninter- 
course,  197  ;  elected  President, 
200 ;  quarrel  with  France,  200- 
201  ;  peace  with  Napoleon,  202  ; 
defeated  by  Jefferson,  203  ;  re 
tires,  205 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  Secretary 
of  State,  239 ;  Monroe  Doctrine, 
242  ;  on  internal  improvements, 
251  ;  career,  252  ;  presidential 
candidate  in  1824,  258;  elected 
by  the  House,  259;  difficulties 
as  President,  259-266;  defeated 
by  Jackson,  266 ;  member  of 
House,  267  ;  on  Missouri,  311  ; 
fights  gag  resolutions,  322  ;  on 
Texas,  335 

Adams,  Samuel,  oration  at  Harvard 
College,  TII;  circular  letter, 
117;  on  Boston  Massacre,  118; 
Committees  of  Correspondence, 
121  ;  flight  to  Lexington,  124 

Age  of  Reason,  132 

Aguinaldo,  Emilio,  582,  583 

Alabama  claims,  498 

Alamance,  battle  of,  133  ftn.  i 

Alamo,  massacre  of,  334 

Alaska,  Russian,  236 ;  boundary 
claim,  241  ;  purchase  of,  499,  502 

Albany,  Dutch  post,  59  ;  Congress 
of,  96 ;  plan  of  union,  96 


Aldrich,  Nelson  M.,  614 

Alexander  VI,  bull  of,  9 

Alger,  Richard  A.,  580  ftn.  i 

Alien  and  Sedition  Acts,  202 

Allen,  Ethan,  127 

Allison,  William  B.,  518 

Altgelt,  J.  P.,  564 

Amendments :  XII,  178  ftn.  i,  204  ; 
I-XV,  180,  181;  XII,  259;  I, 
321  ;  proposed  on  slavery,  418 
ftn. ;  XIII,  474 ;  XIV,  483,  484  ; 
V-VI,  489 

America,  discovery,  3-9  ;  naming, 
11-13 

American  Association,  122 

American  System,  294,  536 

Ames,  Fisher,  609 

Amherst,  Jeffrey,  101,  102 

Anaconda  policy,  456 

Anderson,  Major  Robert,  421-424 

Andre,  Major  John,  141,  142 

Andros,  Sir  Edmund,  51 

Annapolis  Convention,  167 

Anne,  Queen,  304 

Annexation  of  Texas,  335-348 

Antietam,  battle  of,  448 

Anti-imperialists,  583,  585  ftn.  i, 
626 

Antimasons,  292,  293 

Antislavery  societies,  307,  316 

Antislavery  sentiment  in  eight 
eenth  century,  326 

Antislavery  poems,  404 

APia>  553'  554 

Appeal  of  the  Independent  Demo 
crats,  381 

Appomattox,  464 

Apprentice  laws,  480 

Arbitration,  over  Venezuela,  567  ; 
treaty  with  England,  589  ftn.  2  ; 
Hague  Court  of,  607 

Arbitration  treaty  with  England, 
589  ftn.  2 


649 


650 


Index 


Arkansas  admitted  to  Union,  322 

ftn.  3 

Armistead,  General,  451 
Arnold,  Benedict,  130, 138, 141,142 
Arthur,  Chester  A.,  dismissed  by 

Hayes,  516;  Vice  President,  522; 

President,   524 ;   on  corruption, 

524  ftn.  2 
Articlesof  Confederation,  160, 161, 

162,  166,  173 
Ashburton,  Lord,  337 
Assumption,  190 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  331 
Atkinson,  Edward,  585  ftn.  i 
Atlanta,  capture  of,  460 
Aztec  civilization,  15,  1 6 

Babcock,  Secretary,  492 

Bacon,  Nathaniel,  34 

Bacon,  Roger,  5  ftn.  i 

Balboa,  14  ftn.  i 

Baltimore,  in  War  of  1812,  221 ;  in 

Civil  War,  427 
Baltimore,  Lord,  53-56 
Bank,  National,  first,  191  ;  second, 

232,  282-286,  298,  337 
Banks,  N.  P.,  392 
Banks,    state,    232;    "pet,"    286; 

"wildcat,"    287;    national,    453 

ftn.  i 

Barbary  States,  163 
Bayard,  Thomas  F.,  534  ftn.  i 
Beauregard,  General,  424,  439 
Belknap,  Secretary,  492 
Bell,  John,  411 
Bellomont,  Earl  of,  73,  94 
Benton,  Thomas  H.,  256,  262,  276, 

286,  330,  331 
Bering  Sea,  554,  555 
Berkeley,  Governor  William,  62 
Biddle,  Nicholas,  284 
Bienville,  Celoron  de,  95 
Bimetallism,  570 
Binney,  Horace,  324 
Birney,  J.  G.,  324,  327,  341 
Bishops,  in  America,  in 
Black  codes,  481 
Black  Republicans,  408 
Black  Warrior  affair,  373 
Bladensburg,  221 
Blaine,  James  G.,  rejected  in  1876, 

495  ftn.  i  ;    Secretary  of  State, 


523>  527>  545>  553-555.5  on  civil 
service,  526;  opposition  to,  in 
1884,  527,  528;  contrasted  with 
Cleveland,  529  ;  defeat  in  1884, 
530;  resignation  and  death,  556 

Blaire,  F.  P.,  Jr.,  426 

Bland,  Richard  P.,  518,  568 

Bland-  Allison  Act,  518 

Blockade  of  South,  442 

Bolivar,  Simon,  239 

Bonhomme  Richard,  140 

Bonus  Bill,  249,  250 

Boone,  Daniel,  145,  149 

Border  ruffians,  389 

Boston,  spirit  of,  120;  punished 
by  England,  127  ;  hostility  of,  to 
Garrison,  319;  commission  gov 
ernment  of,  616 

Boston  Massacre,  118,  119 

Boston  News  Letter,  77,  78 

Boston  Tea  Party,  120 

Boxers,  589 

Braddock,  General,  99 

Bradford,  Governor,  37,  38,  42 

Bradley,  Justice,  496 

Bragg,    General,    454,    455  ftn.  i, 


Brandywine  Creek,  battle  of,  138 

Breckinridge,  John  C.,  410 

Brooks,  Preston,  392,  393 

Brougham,  Lord,  269 

Brown,  Jacob,  220 

Brown,     John,     390,     406,      407, 

408  ftn.  i,  429 

Bryan,  William  J.,   nominated  in 
1896,  568;  career,  569;   defeat, 
571;    defeat  in   1900,   584;  de 
feat  in  1908,  607 
Bryant,  William  C.,  235 
Bryce,  James,  615 
Buchanan,  James,  minister  to  Eng 
land,  373  ;  President,  395  ;  and 
Kansas,  396-399;  weakness  in 
1860-1861,  416,  422,  423 
Buell,  General,  454,  455  ftn.  i 
Buena  Vista,  battle  of,  345 
Buffalo  Exposition  of  1901,  592 
Bull  Run,  first  battle,  439  ;  second 

battle,  447 

Bunau-Varilla  Treaty,  602 
Bunker  Hill,  battle  of,  130 
Burgess,  J.  W.,  323  ftn.  I 


Index 


65 1 


Burgesses,  House  of,  Virginia,  32, 

114,  118,  122 

Burke,  Edmund,  108,  122,  521 
Burlingame  Treaty,  516  ftn.  2 
Burnet,  Governor,  94 
Burns,  Anthony,  385 
Burnside,  General,  448 
Burr,  Aaron,  203,  212 
Bustamante,  President,  333 
Butler,  A.  P.,  392 
Butler,  Benjamin  F.,  446 
Byrd,  William,  58  ftn.  i 

Cabeza  de  Vaca,  16 

Cabot,  John,  n 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  censures  Jack 
son,  239 ;  expansionist,  249, 
250;  career,  254,  256;  Vice 
President,  260 ;  "  Exposition  and 
Protest,"  273,  274;  senator,  282  ; 
on  abolitionists,  321  ;  opinions 
on  slavery,  322-325  ;  Secretary 
of  State,  339 ;  on  Compromise 
of  1850,  360;  death,  360 

California,  344,  350,  356,  357,  375 

Calvert,  Cecilius,  55 

Calvert,  George,  53 

Canada,  84,  85,  91,  95,  102,  in, 
220,  231 

Canal,  Panama,  371,  375,  600-603 

Canal,  Suez,  603  ftn.  i 

Canning,  George,  241 

Cannon,  Joseph  G.,  614 

Cape  Verde  Islands,  n,  579 

Captains  of  industry,  538 

Carnegie,    Andrew,    543  ftn.  2, 
607  ftn.  i 

Carolinas,  founded,  57 ;  condition, 
^8  ;  in  Revolutionary  War,  140 

Carpetbaggers,  480  ftn.  i,  487 

Carteret,  George,  63 

Cartier,  Jacques,  20,  82,  83 

Cass,  Lewis,  354,  355,  396 

Caucus,  178  ftn.  2,  258 

Cavaliers,  33 

Cavite,  577 

Centennial  Exposition,  500,  501 

Cervera,  Admiral,  579 

Champlain,  Lake,  84 ;  battle  on, 
220 

Champlain,  Samuel  de,  83,  84,  86 

Chancellorsville,  battle  of,  448 


Chapultepec,  battle  of,  345 

Charles  I,  33 

Charles  II,  33,  35,  47,  49'  5°'  6o» 
63,  90,  91,  120 

Charleston,  founded,  57 ;  in  Revo 
lutionary  War,  140  ;  secession, 
413;  celebration,  467 

Charlestown,  130 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  362,  381,  452, 
453  ftn.  i,  460,  460  ftn.  i 

Chatham,  Earl  of,  117 

Chattanooga,  battle  of,  455,  456, 

457 

Cherokees,  146 
Chesapeake  affair,  216 
Cheves,  218 
Chicago,  563 

Chickamauga,  battle  of,  456 
Child  labor,  623  ftn.  2,  626 
Chile,  555 
China,  589,  590 

Chinese  Exclusion  Act,  5i6ftn.  2 
Chowan  River,  57 
Cibola,  17 
Cipango,  6 

Cities,  American,  615,  6i6ftn.  i 
Civil  Rights  Bill,  483  ftn.  i 
Civil  service,   524,   525,   526,   532, 

533'  594  ftn.  i 
Civil  WTar,  436-467,  475,  475  ftn.  2, 

5° 5>  5°7 

Claiborne,  Governor,  237 

Claiborne,  William,  85 

Clark,  Jonas,  124 

Clark,  George  Rogers,  148,  149 

Clay,  Henry,  in  Congress,  218; 
and  War  of  1812,  219,  220; 
career,  256,  257 ;  presidential 
candidate  in  1824,  258;  Secre 
tary  of  State,  259  ;  Compromise 
of  1833,  282;  and  Bank,  284; 
defeated  by  Jackson,  285  ;  Mis 
souri  Compromise,  312;  rela 
tions  with  Tyler,  336  ftn.  i  ; 
nominated  in  1844,  339;  on 
Texas,  340,  350  ;  defeat  in  1844, 
341  ;  Compromise  of  1850,  358  ; 
death,  367 

Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty,  371,  600 

Cleveland,  Grover,  career,  528, 
529 ;  President,  530 ;  policy, 
533'  5345  °n  civil  service, 


652 


Index 


534  ftn.  i,  594  ftn.  i;  financial 
measures,  535-538 ;  attitude 
toward  labor,  539,  540;  defeat 
in  1888,  544  ;  reelection  in  1892, 
557;  difficult  problems,  558; 
gold  supply,  559,  560;  tariff 
policy,  560,  561  ;  Pullman  strike, 
563  ;  on  Hawaii,  565  ;  rejected  in 
1896,  578 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  254 

Clinton,  George,  136,  140,  141, 
223 

Coahuila,  333 

Colbert,  90 

Cold  Harbor,  battle  of,  459, 
459  ftn.  2 

Colombia,  60 1 

Colonies,  table  of,  69 ;  in  eight 
eenth  century,  72  ;  characteris 
tics,  79 

Columbia,  S.C.,  281 

Columbus,  4-9 

"Common  Sense,"  131,  132 

Compromise  of  1850,  358,  359, 
363,  43 1  ftn.  i 

Confederacy,  Southern,  formation, 
414;  enlargement,  425,  426; 
resources,  431  ;  collapse,  466 

Congress,  Continental,  122,  123, 
127,  160;  of  the  Confederation, 
164,  165  ;  of  United  States,  174- 
188 

Conkling,  Roscoe,  516,  522,  523, 
530  ftn.  i 

Connecticut,  settled,  44 ;  charter, 
47  ;  claimed  by  Dutch,  60 

Conservation,  597,  599 

Constitution,  173-182;  slavery  in, 
307 ;  denounced  by  Garrison, 
320 

Constitutional  Convention,  167- 
182 

Constitutional  Union  Party,  411 

"  Contraband,"  469 

Conventions,  national  nominating, 
292,  293 

Cooke,  Jay,  494  ftn.  2 

Cooper,  James  Fenimore,  235 

Cooper,  Peter,  514 

Cooper,  Thomas,  271 

Corinth,  445 

Cornell,  Alonzo  B.,  516 


Cornwallis,    Lord,    137,    141,    142; 

M3'  '5° 
Coronado,  17 
"Corrupt  Bargain"  of  1824,  259, 

260 

Cortez,  Hernando,  15,  16 
Cotton,  247,  270,  369,  431,  442 
Cotton  gin,  306,  308  ftn.  i 
Cotton,  John,  40 
Coupon  bonds,  452 
Coureurs  de  bois,  85 
Court,  see  Supreme  Court 
Cowpens,  141 
Coxey,  Jacob,  562 
Crawford,  William  H.,   232,    254, 

258 

Credit  Mobilier,  512,  513 
Crime  of  1873,  5:7  ftn.  2,  532 
Crittenden,  J.  J.,  417 
Crown  Point,  94 
Cuba,  7,   15,   372,  373,   500,   574, 

575,  576,  578,  582,  586 
Cullom  Act,  542 

Curtis,  George  W.,  491  ftn.  4,  528 
Custer,  George  A.,  517  ftn.  i,  532 
Czolgosz,  593 

Dale,  Governor  Thomas,  31 

Dallas,  Secretary,  232 

Dark  horse,  340,  367 

Dartmouth  College  Case,  234 

Davenport,  John,  47 

Davis,  Jefferson,  on  Oregon,  353; 
on  Kansas,  392  ;  and  Douglas, 
402 ;  resolutions,  408 ;  Presi 
dent  of  Confederacy,  414; 
message,  425  ftn.  i  ;  escape 
from  Richmond,  464 ;  impris 
oned,  466  ftn.  2,  477  ftn.  i 

Dawes  Bill,  548 

Day,  Judge  William  R.,  590  ftn.  i 

Debs,  Eugene  V.,  563 

Declaration  of  Independence,  133- 

J35 

Delaware,  66,  170 
De  la  Warre,  Lord,  31 
Demarcation  line,  1 1 
Democracy,  -609 
Democratic  party,  under  Jackson, 

291,  292  ;   and  Civil  War,  409, 

435  ftn.  2  ;  victory  in  1874,  495  ; 

in  1884,  529,  530;  in  1892,  557; 


Index 


653 


radicals,  564,  567  ;  in  1896,  568  ; 

split,  571 
Democratic-Republican  Party,  192, 

265 

Des  Moines,  615 
De  Soto,  1 6,  17 
Detroit,  89,  220 
Dewey,    George,    577,    581,    582, 

589  ftn.  i 

Diaz,  Bartholomew,  4 
Dickenson,  John,  128,  161 
Dingley  Bill,  590 
Dinwiddie,  Governor,  96,  97 
Directory,  French,  200 
District   of    Columbia,    206  ftn.  i, 

359,  363 

Dixie,  430 

Dongan,  Thomas,  91 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  on  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Act,  380-383,  387  ;  on 
Lecompton  fraud,  398,  399  ;  de 
bates  with  Lincoln,  399-402 ; 
nominated  in  1860,  410;  vote 
for,  412;  supports  Lincoln,  424 

Draft  riots,  448,  476 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  21 

Dred  Scott  decision,  396,  397 

Duke's  Laws,  61 

Duquesne,  Fort,  97,  89,  101 

Dutch  in  America,  59,  61,  81 

East  India  Company,  120 
Education,    in    colonies,    77  ;    in 

United  States,  622,  623  ftn.  i 
Elastic  clause,  181 
El  Caney,  580 
Election,   of    1800,  203 ;  of   1824, 

258,  259;  of  1840,  296,  297;  of 

1860,411,412;  of  1876,  496;  of 

1884,  530;  of  1896,  571 
Electoral  commission  of  1877,  496 
Electors,  presidential,  178 
Elkins  Bill,  542 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  472, 

474 

Embargo,  216 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  408  ftn.  i 
Emigrant  Aid  Society,  388 
Endicott,  John,  40 
Endless  chain,  559 
England,  see  Great  Britain 
Enumerated  articles,  70 


Era  of  good  feeling,  231,  251 
Ericsson,  John,  443 
Erie  Canal,  254,  264 
Erie,  Lake,  battle  of,  220 
"  Evangeline,"  97  ftn.  3 
Everett,  Edward,  389 
"  Exposition  and  Protest "  of  Cal- 
houn,  273 

Faneuil  Hall,  118 

Farmers'  Alliance,  556 

Farragut,  David  A.,  446,  461 

Federal  Election  Law,  see  Force 
Bill 

"Federalist,  The,"  172 

Federalists,  192,  203,  205,  211, 
223,  224 

Federation  of  Labor,  American, 
556 

"  Fifty-four  Forty  or  Fight,"  342 

Filipinos,  582,  583 

Fillmore,  Millard,  362 

Finaeus,  map  of,  18 

Fish,  Hamilton,  500 

Fisheries,  treaty,  1 52 

Florida,  15,  103,  237-340,  322  ftn. 3 

Floyd,  Secretary,  416,  420 

Foote  Resolution,  279 

Force  Bill,  of  1833,  282;  of  1871, 
492  ftn.  i  ;  of  1890,  550 

Fort  Donelson,  444 

Fort  Henry,  444 

Fort  Jackson,  446 

Fort  Leavenworth,  344 

Fort  Le  Bceuf,  97 

Fort  McHenry,  221 

Fort  Necessity,  97 

Fort  Pitt,  101 

Fort  St.  Philip,  446 

Fort  Sumter,  421,  423-425 

Fort  Ticonderoga,  127 

Fort  Venango,  97 

Fort  William  Henry,  99 

Forty-niners,  357 

France,  early  explorations,  20,  82  ; 
rule  in  Canada,  85  ;  alliance  of 
1778,  139,  150;  aid  in  Revolu 
tionary  War,  151  ;  quarrel  with 
United  States,  200-202 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  65  ;  on  colo 
nies,  76;  postmaster-general,  77 ; 
Albany  Congress,  96 ;  on  Stamp 


654 


Index 


Act,  113;  on  Revolution,  129, 132; 

Declaration   of    Independence, 

133 ;  to  Vergennes,  139 ;  minister 

to  France,  1 50,  1 52  ;  Articles  of 

Confederation,    160;    president 

antislavery  society,  307 
Fredericksburg,  battle  of,  448 
Freedman's  Bureau,  481  ftn.  i,  483 

ftn.  i 

Freeport  Doctrine,  401 
Free-Soil  party,  355,  358 
Fremont,  J.  C,  352,  375,  393,  395, 

470 
French  and  Indian  wars,  93  ftn.  i, 

98 

French  Revolution,  194 
Friends  (Quakers),  63,   63  ftn.  i, 

305,  305  ftn.  2 
Frontenac,  Count,  89,  92 
Frye,  William  B.,  214  ftn.  i 
Fulton,  Robert,  234,  276 
Fundamental  Constitutions,  46 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  309,  364,  365, 

385 

Gadsden  Purchase,  349  ftn.  i 
Gag  resolutions,  324,  327 
Gage,  Governor,  123-125 
Gallatin,  Albert,  207,  253 
Galveston,  615 
Garfield,  James  A.,  522-524 
Garland,  William  H.,  543  ftn.  i 
Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  317-320, 

467 

Gates,  General,  138,  141 
Geary,  Governor,  395 
Genet,  Citizen,  195,  196 
Geneva  tribunal,  498,  499 
George,  Henry,  593  ftn.  i 
George,  King,  I,  58 
George,  King,  II,  66 
George,  King,  III,  119,  121,  128, 

13°'  T3r 
Georgia,  founded,  66,  67  ;  western 

claims,  162;  Indian  troubles,  264, 

265  ;  Sherman's  march,  462,  463 
Germaine,  Lord  George,  137 
Germantown,  65,  138,  305 
Germany,  quarrel  with,  553,  554 
Gerry,  Elbridge,  201 
Gettysburg,     battle     of,    449-451, 

454  ^n.  2 


Ghent,  Treaty  of,  222 

Giddings,  Joshua,  324 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  21 

Gist,  Christopher,  95 

Gold,   discovery,   356;    supply  in 

1893.  55? 

Gorges,  Sir  Ferdinando,  35,  39, 
48 

Gorman,  A.  P.,  561 

Grand  Model,  the,  57 

Grangers,  513,  532,  541 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  in  the  West, 
444  ff . ;  takes  Vicksburg,  451; 
lieutenant  general,  458 ;  Rich 
mond  campaign,  459-466;  as 
President,  491,  492  ;  reelection, 
494 ;  influenced  by  radicals, 
511  ;  third-term  movement,  522, 

S32 

Great  Britain,  holds  fur  posts, 
163,  195 ;  strained  relations 
1783-1794,  196,  197  ;  Orders  in 
Council,  213,  218,  219;  War  of 
1812,  219  ff . ;  interests  in 
South  America,  241  ;  commer 
cial  rivalry,  269 ;  slave  trade, 
304 ;  emancipation  in  colonies, 
325;  Oregon  boundary,  338, 
342;  Texas  question,  338  ;  Trent 
affair,  442 ;  opinion  on  Civil 
War,  454 ;  Alabama  claims, 
498,  499;  seal  fisheries,  554; 
Venezuela,  566  ;  friendship  since 
1898,  589,  589  ftn.  i 

Great  Lakes,  152,  163 

Great  Meadows,  battle  of,  97 

Greeley,Horace,384,423,47iftn.2, 
493,  494 

Greenback  party,  514 

Greene,   General  Nathanael,   140 

Grenville,  George,  112 

Guadalupe-Hidalgo,  Treaty  of,  347 

Guiteau,  Charles,  524 

Hague  Court,  607  ftn.  i,  626 

Half-breeds,  52 2  ftn.  i 

Halifax,  118 

Halleck,  General  H.  W.,  444/446 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  proposes 
convention,  167  ;  ideas  of  gov 
ernment,  169;  efforts  for  ratifi 
cation,  171  ;  Secretary  of  the 


Index 


655 


Treasury,  187;  on  debt,  189; 
on  tariff,  190;  on  Bank,  191; 
leader  of  Federalists,  192 ;  on 
Jay  Treaty,  199 ;  killed  by  Burr, 
212 

Hamilton,  Andrew,  78 
Hamilton,  Colonel,  148,  149 
Hampton  Roads,  battle,  443;  con 
ference,  464 

Hancock,  General  W.  S.,  451,  522 
Hancock,  John,  121,  124 
Hanna,  Marcus  A.,  569,  590  ftn.  i, 

605 

Harpers  Ferry,  406 
Harrisburg  Convention,  271 
Harrison,  Benjamin,  543,  544,  556, 

565 
Harrison,  William    H-,   218,   220, 

245,  295,  296,  297,  336 
Hartford,  46 

Hartford  Convention,  223,  224 
Harvard   College,   72  ftn.  i,   75, 

in 

Havana,  102,  586  ftn.  i 
Hawaiian     Islands,     565,     566, 

566  ftn.  i 

Hawkins,  Sir  John,  21 
Hay,  John,  589,  590 ftn.  i,  600 
Hay-Herran  Treaty,  60 1 
Hayes,     R.     B.,    495,    496,     515, 

516  ftn.  i,  518,  522 
Haymarket  Square  riot,  539  ftn.  2 
Hayne,  Robert  Y.,  273,  280 
Hayti,  8 

Helper,  Hilton  R.,  234 
Henry,  Patrick,  114,  118,  127,  147, 

148,  202 

Hepburn  Bill,  542,  606 
Herkimer,  General,  137 
Hessians,  137 
Hill,  David  B.,  544,  557 
Holy  Alliance,  241,  242 
Homestead  Act,  512,  532 
Hong-Kong,  577 
Hood,  General,  460,  462,  463 
Hooker,     General    Joseph,    448, 

457 

Hooker,  Thomas,  45 
Houston,  Sam,  334,  335 
Howe,  General  William,  136,  137, 

138 
Hudson,  Henry,  59 


Hudson  Bay  Company,  87,  90,  331 
Hudson  River,  60,  137 
Huguenots,  72 
Hull,  William,  220 
Hiilsemann  letter,  370 
Huron,  Lake,  86 
Hutchinson,  Anne,  47 
Hutchinson,    Governor    Thomas, 
115,  118,  123 

Immigration,    72,    246,   431,    521, 

620,  622,  626 
Impressment,  197,  215 
Income  tax,  561,  562  ftn.  i 
Independent  Treasury,  288 
India  House,  17 
Indians,  22-25,  42,  47,  59,  65,  83, 

92,  102,  113,  146,  195,  218,  236, 

237,  245,  264,    516,    517  ftn.  i, 

548,  549 

Indies,  East,  3,  8 
Indies,  West,  20,  71, 108,  109,  113, 

144 

Infant  industries,  268 
Ingalls,  J.  J.,  613 
Initiative,  612,  613 
Injunction,  564  ftn.  i 
Insular  cases,  587 
Insurgents,  614 
Internal  improvements,  264 
Interstate  Commerce  Act,  542 
Intolerable  Acts,  122 
Iowa  admitted,  379 
Iroquois,  84,  91,  93 
Irrigation  policy,  598 
Irving,  Washington,  235 
Italy,  quarrel  with,  555 

Jackson,  Andrew,  victory  at  New 
Orleans,  222 ;  campaign  in 
Florida,  238,  239;  career,  257, 
258 ;  defeated  in  House,  259  ; 
elected  President,  266 ;  inaugura 
tion,  274,  275;  reign  of,  277- 
298;  character,  278;  on  tariff, 
279;  on  nullification,  281,  282; 
on  Bank,  284-286 ;  censured  by 
Senate,  286 ;  specie  circular, 
287  ;  spoils  system,  292 ;  oppo 
sition  to,  294 ;  opinion  on  slavery, 
298,  323;  on  Texas,  335;  on 
Mexico,  348 


656 


Index 


Jackson,  General  T.  J.  ("Stone 
wall"),  441  ftn.  2,  447  ftn.  i, 
448  ftn.  2 

Jamaica,  150 

James,  King,  I,  28,  36 

James,  King,  II,  50,   51,  61,  62 

Jamestown,  29 

Jay,  John,  150,  151,  197 

Jay  Treaty,  197,  200 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  Declaration  of 
Independence,  133;  Secretary 
of  State,  187 ;  defeated  by 
Adams,  200 ;  Kentucky  resolu 
tions,  202  ;  elected  President, 
203,  204 ;  Louisiana  Purchase, 
208-211;  reflected,  211;  em 
bargo,  216  ;  opinion  of  Jackson, 
257;  on  home  industries,  269; 
opinions  on  slavery,  305  ftn.  i, 
307,  308  ftn.  2 ;  on  Missouri 
Compromise,  315 

Jenckes,  525 

Jesuits,  86 

Johnson,  Andrew,  446  ftn.  I,  477, 
479,  484,^490,  598 

Johnston,  General  A.  S.,  444,  445 

Johnston,  General  J.  E.,  439  ftn.  2, 
458,  459,  466  ftn.  2 

Joliet,  82 

Jones,  John  Paul,  139 

Judicial  department  of  United 
States,  179 

Kalm,  Peter,  in 
Kanawha  River,  victory  on,  146 
Kansas,  338-395,  437  ftn.  2 
Kansas-Nebraska    Bill,    381,    383, 

384,  387 
Kaskaskia,  148 
Kearny,  General,  344 
Kendall,  Amos,  323 
Kent  Island,  55 

Kentucky,  145,  147,  202,  203,  309 
Key,  F.  S.,  221 
King,  Rufus,  253,  254,  311 
King  Philip's  War,  39 
King's  Friends,  128,  129,  150 
Kings  Mountain,  141 
Klondike,  590 

Knights  of  Labor,  538,  539,  573 
Know-Nothing  party,  386  ftn.  i 
Kosiusko,  141  ftn.  i 


Kossuth,  370 

Ku-Klux  Klans,  487,  502 

La  Bahia,  334 

Labor,  514,  539,  540,  597  ;  Bureau 
of,  540 

Labor  party,  291,  495 

Lachine,  20,  83 

Lafayette,  141  ftn.  i,  143 

La  Follette,  Robert  M.,  6n 

Lamar,  L.  Q.  C.,  534  ftn.  2 

Land  sharks,  512 

La  Salle,  87,  89  ftn.  i 

Las  Casas,  20 

Lawrence,  Kansas,  388,  390,  391 

Lecompton  Constitution,  398,  402 

Lee,  Charles,  136,  140 

Lee,  Richard  II.,  133 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  joins  Confederacy, 
426  ;  invades  Maryland,  448  ; 
invades  Pennsylvania,  449  ;  re 
pulsed  at  Gettysburg,  450,  451  ; 
surrender,  464-466 

Leisler,  Jacob,  61  ftn.  i 

Lenox  globe,  18 

Leopard  affair,  2 1 6 

Lewis  and  Clark  expedition,  210 

Lexington,  Ky.,  147 

Lexington,  Mass.,  123,  124,  125 

Liberator,  The,  317,  318 

Liberia,  316 

Liberty  party,  324,  355 

Liliuokalani,  Queen,  565 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  character,  400  ; 
position  on  slavery,  400,  415; 
debates  with  Douglas,  400,401  ; 
at  Cooper  Union,  408,  409 ; 
nomination  in  1860,  411  ;  elec 
tion,  412;  inauguration,  421; 
danger  in  Washington,  427  ftn.  2 ; 
relation  to  Congress,  439,  439 
ftn.  3 ;  reconstruction  plans, 
446  ftn.  i,  478  ;  message  of  1863, 
453;  reelection,  461  ;  at  Hamp 
ton  Roads,  464  ;  in  Richmond, 
464 ;  assassination,  467 ;  on 
emancipation,  470,  471;  reply 
to  Greeley,  471  ftn.  2 ;  issues 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  47  2, 
473 ;  on  negro  suffrage,  486  ftn.  I 

Little  Big  Horn,  massacre,  517 
ftn.  2 


Index 


657 


Livingstone,  Robert  R.,  208,  209, 

234 

London  Company,  29,  33 
Long,  John  D.,  577 
Longstreet,  General,  451 
Lopez,  372 
Louisburg,  93,  101 
Louisiana,  87,  94,  211  ftn.  i,  310 
Louisiana  Purchase,  208-211,  240, 

256 ftn.  i,  379 
Lovejoy,  Elijah,  324 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  318  ftn.  i, 

348,  419,  469,  491  ftn.  4 
Lower  Counties,  the  Three,  65 
Loyalists,  see  Tories 
Lundy,  Benjamin,  316 
Lundy's  Lane,  battle  of,  220 
Lyon,  Captain  Nathaniel,  426  ftn.  i 

McClellan,    General    George    B., 

440,  441,  447,  461 
McCulloch  vs.  Maryland,  234 
McDonough,  Thomas,  220 
McDowell,   General    Irving,   439, 

440 
McKinley,  William,  550,  553  ftn.  I, 

569>  57i,  5?6,  583>  592 
McKinley  Bill,  the,  550,  551 
Macon's  bill,  217 
Madison,  James,  168,  169,  202,  216, 

217,  219,  223,  230,237,238,249, 

250 

Magellan,  Ferdinand,  14,  15 
Maine,  35,  48,  312,  313,  337 
Maine,  the,  576 
Malvern  Hill,  battle  of,  441 
Manassas,  battle  of,  439 
Manhattan,  cjg 
Manila,  102,  581 
Manila  Bay,  battle  of,  577,  578 
Marcy,  William  L.,  292,  372,  373 
Marietta,  165 
Marquette,  87 

Marshall,  John,  201,  212,  233,  397 
Maryland,  53,  55,  161,  427,  428 
Mason,  James  M.,  442,  454  ftn.  2 
Mason,  John,  48 

Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  64  ftn.  i 
Massachusetts,  39,  41-43,  49,  50, 

51,  60,  112,  118,  120-123 
Matamoras,  344 
Maximilian,  of  Austria,  497 


Mayflower  compact,  37,  46  ftn.  I 
Meade,  General  George,  450,  451, 

452  ftn.  2,  458 
Mecklenburg    Declaration,   133 

ftn.  i 

Mercantile  theory,  70 
Mercator,  13,  19 
Merit  system,  525 
Mexican  War,  342-345,  347,  348 
Mexico,  1 6,  332,  335,  338,  342,  345, 

347,  497,  604  ftn.  i 
Midnight  judges,  204 
Miles,  General  Nelson  A.,  581 
Mills  Bill,  537,  538 
Miquelon,  102 
Mississippi  River,  17,  87,  94,  245, 

444- 446 

Mississippi  territory,  247,  309 
Missouri,  310,  311,  313,  388,  389, 

426 ftn.  i,  429 
Missouri    Compromise,    312-315, 

3 52  ftn.  2,  353,  381,  383 
Mitchell,  John,  596 
Mobile,  461 
Monitor,  the,  443 
Monmouth,  battle  of,  140 
Monroe,  James,  200,  209,  215,  224, 

230,  231,  236,  238,  241,  242 
Monroe  Doctrine,   242,   243,  497, 

566,  567,  604,  605 
Montcalm,  Marquis,  101 
Monterey,  344,  357 
Montgomery,  Ala.,  414 
Montgomery,  Richard,  130 
Montreal,  20,  83,  102 
Morgan,  J.  P.,  559,  560,  609 
Morris,  Gouverneur,  162,  206,  329 
Mount  Vernon,  155,  166,  193 
Muck-raking,  611 
Mugwumps,  526 
Mulligan  letters,  530,  530  ftn.  i 
Miinster,  19 
Murfreesboro,  battle  of,  455  ftn.  i 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  202,  208,  209, 

2I3,   2I7,   2I9,   221,   239 

Napoleon  III,  436,  454  ftn.  2,  497 
Nashville,  365,  463 
National-Republican  party,  265 
Naturalization  Act,  202 
Navigation  Acts,  70,  71,  108,  112, 
120 


658 


Index 


Navy  of  United  States,  201,  219, 

221,  230,  546,  554,  577 
Nebraska,  380 
Negro  suffrage,  48  5, 486  ftn.  1,489, 

550  ftn.  i 

Negroes,  7  2, 306, 480, 488, 619  ftr>.  i 
New  Amsterdam,  59,  76 
New  England,  35,  39,  72,  73,  94, 

216,  219,  223,  230,  235,  260,  272, 

3°4 
New  England,   Confederation  of, 

49,  60  t 

New  England,  Council  for,  48 
New  Hampshire,  48,  49 
New  Haven,  47 
New  Jersey,  63,  137,  168 
New  Mexico,  344,  359 
New  Netherland,  49,  59,  61 
New  Orleans,  89,  208,  222,  446 
New  York,  58,  59,  61,  62,  90,  136, 

137,  155.  l61 
Newfoundland,  93 
Niagara,  94 
Nicaragua,  600,  60 1 
Nicolet,  Jean,  87 
Nobel  prize,  607  ftn.  2 
Nonintercourse  Act,  216,  217 
Norsemen,  9  ftn.  i 
North,  Lord,  119,  138,  150 
Northwest    Ordinance,    165,    166, 

3°7 

Nueces  River,  343 
Nullification,  281,  298 

Oglethorpe,  James,  66 

Ohio,  310 

Ohio  Company,  of  Virginia,  95  ;  of 

Massachusetts,  165 
Ohio  valley,  95,  97 
Oklahoma,  549  ftn.  i 
Old  Dominion,  33 
Old  Hickory,  258 
Old  Rough  and  Ready,  354 
Olney,  Richard,  566 
Omnibus  Bill,  see  Compromise  of 

1850 

Ontario,  Lake,  86 
Orders  in  Council,  217,  219 
Oregon,  210, 331, 332,  338, 341, 342, 

353 

Oregon,  the,  579  ftn.  I 
Ostend  Manifesto,  373 


Oswego,  152 

Otis,  James,  71,  112  ftn.  i,  114,  121 

Pacific  Ocean,  14,  14  ftn.  i 

Packenham,  General,  222 

Paine,  Thomas,  132 

Palma,  Estrada,  586 

Palmer,  J.  M.,  571  ftn.  i 

Palo  Alto,  battle  of,  344 

Palos,  5 

Panama,  15,  262,  264,  276,  371,  602 

Pan- American  Congress,  553,  603 

ftn.  2 

Pan-American  Exposition,  592 
Panic,  of  1837,  288;  of  1873,  494 

ftn.  2 
Paris,  Treaty  of  1763,  102 ;  of  1783, 

152-155;  of  1898,  582 
Parker,  Alton  B.,  605 
Parker,  Captain  John,  124 
Parker,  Theodore,  408  ftn.  i 
Parliament,  107,  108,  no,  115, 121, 

124 

Parsons'  Cause,  114 
Parties,  political,  293  ftn.  i 
Paternalism,  85,  623 
Pathfinder,  see  Fremont 
Patrons  of  husbandry,  see  Gran 
gers 

Patroons,  59 

Payne-Aldrich  Bill,  614  ftn.  i 
Peace    Conference    of    1861,   418 

ftn.  i 

Peking,  589 

Pemberton,  General,  451 
Pendleton  Act,  525,  526 
Peninsular  campaign,  440,  441 
Penn,  William,  63,  64,  65 
Pennsylvania,  63—66 
Pension  bills,  544,  544  ftn.  I,  546 
Pepperell,  Colonel  William,  93 
Percy,  Lord,  125 
Perdido  River,  237 
Perry,  Oliver  H.,  220 
Perry ville,  battle  of,  45 5  ftn.  i 
Personal- Liberty  acts,  385,  404 
Peru,  1 6 
Petersburg,  464 
Philadelphia,  64,  122,  140,  500 
Philippines,  i  5,  474  ftn.  i,  577,  578, 

581,  582,  584,  585 
Pickett's  charge,  451 


Index 


659 


Pierce,  Franklin,  367, 381,  391,  392 

Pilgrims,  35,  253 

Pinckney,  C.  C,  200,  211,  271 

Pinckney,  Thomas,  199 

Pinckney,  William,  215 

Pitcairn,  Major,  124 

Pitt,  William,  99,  107,  no,  1 16,  117, 

J52 

Pizarro,  16 

Platt,  Thomas,  516,  524 
Platt  Amendment,  586 
Plymouth  colony,  35-39,  52 
Plymouth  Company,  29,  35 
Ptolemy,  4,  12 
Polk,  James  K.,  339,  340,  341,  343, 

346 

Pontiac,  113,  146 
Pooling,  542  ftn.  I 
Pope,  General  John,  446,  447 
Popular  Sovereignty,  see  Squatter 

sovereignty 
Populist  party,  556 
Port  Hudson,  446,  452 
Port  Royal,  90 
Porter,  Horace,  459  ftn.  2 
Porto  Rico,  15,  581,  582,  586,  587 
Portolani,  4 

Portsmouth,  Treaty  of,  607 
Post  Office  Department,  76,77, 177 

ftn.  i 

Pottawatomie  Creek,  391 
President,  176,  177,  178,  204 
Presidential  Succession  Act,  535 
Prisons,  in  Civil  War,  476 
Privy  Council,  53 
Proclamation  line,  144 
Proclamation  of  neutrality,  194, 195 
Proprietary  colonies,  52  ff. 
Protection,  267,  268,  271,  276,  550, 

551 

Providence,  44 
Public  lands,  235,  246,   279,  287, 

288,  512 
Pueblos,  23,  24 
Pullman  strike,  562 
Pure  Food  and  Drugs  Law,  623 
Puritans,  40,  42,  72,  74 

Quakers,  see  Friends 

Quebec,  83,  85,  100,  101,  102,  130 

Quincy,  Josiah,  330 

Quitrents,  53,  57 


Railroads,  265,  266,  291,  368,  369, 

512,  514,  540,  606 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  21,  22 
Randolph,  Edmund,  50,  132 
Randolph,  John,  270,  273,  308  ftn.  2 
Reciprocity,  553,  553  ftn.  i,  605 
Reclamation  Act,  598 
Reconcentration  camps,  575 
Reconstruction,  478-489,  494 
Reed,  Thomas  B.,  545,  547,  573 
Referendum,  612,  613 
Republican  party,  265,  386,  387, 

393-395'  4*0,  429,  493,  5IO»  5IJ> 

521,  529,  530,  552 
Resaca  de  la  Palma,  battle  of,  344 
Resumption  of  specie   payments, 

5*9 

Revere,  Paul,  124 
Revolution,  American,   112,  136- 

'55 

Rhode  Island,  44,  167,  171 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  81 

Richmond,  439,  464 

Rio  Grande  River,  342,  343 

Rio  Janeiro,  603  ftn.  2 

Roanoke  Island,  21 

Robertson,  James,  145,  149 

Robinson,  Charles,  390 

Rock  of  Chickamauga,  457 

Rockingham,  Marquis  of,  116 

Roman  Catholics,  55,  56 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  on  Revolu 
tion,  112  ;  on  civil  service,  525; 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
577;  lieutenant  colonel,  580; 
career,  593,  594 ;  policy  as 
President,  595 ;  on  corpora 
tions,  596,  606 ;  on  labor,  597  ; 
on  conservation,  597-599 ;  on 
Panama,  600  ftn.  i,  60 1  ;  on 
Monroe  Doctrine,  604 ;  reelec 
tion,  605  ;  receives  Nobel  prize, 
607  ;  trip  abroad,  608  ;  crusade 
for  reform,  610 

Root,  Elihu,  603  ftn.  2 

Rosecrans,    General,   454,  455, 
4 55  ftn.  i 

Rough  Riders,  579 

Royal  provinces,  67,  68 

Rush,  Richard,  241 

Russell,  Lord  John,  498 

Russia,  241,  499,  607 


66o 


Index 


Sabine  River,  240,  333 

St.  Lawrence  River,  20,  82,  100 

St.  Leger,  General,  137 

St.  Lusson,  87 

St.  Marks,  238 

St.  Marys,  55 

St.  Pierre,  102 

Salem,  40,  49,  124 

Salisbury,  Lord,  555,  566,  567 

Samoan  Islands,  553 

Sampson,  William  T.,  578 

San  Ildefonso,  Treaty  of,  208 

San  Jacinto  River,  334 

San  Martin,  General,  239 

San  Salvador,  7 

Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  32 

Santa  Anna,  334,  345 

Santa  Fe,  344 

Santiago,  579,  580,  581 

Santo  Domingo,  500,  604 

Saratoga,  battle  of,  138 

Sault  Sainte  Marie,  87 

Savannah,  66,  140,  463 

Scalawags,  480  ftn.  i,  487 

Schenectady,  92 

Schley,  Winfield  S.,  579  ftn.  i, 
58o 

Schofield,  General,  458 

Schurz,  Carl,  493  ftn.  i 

Scott,  Winfield,  345,  367, 423,  440 

Secession,  413,  420 

Senatorial  courtesy,  180 

Separatists,  36,  41 

Seven  Years'  War,  97  ftn.  i 

Seventh-of-March  speech,  360 

Sevier,  John,  145,  149 

Seward,  William  H.,  on  Compro 
mise  of  1850,  361  ;  on  Dred 
Scott  case,  397  ;  rejected  at 
Chicago,  1860,  411  ;  Secretary 
of  State,  41 1  ftn.  i  ;  on  Trent 
affair,  442 ;  purchases  Alaska, 

499 

Shafter,  General,  579,  581 
Sharpsburg,  battle  of,  448 
Shawmut,  40 
Shays's  Rebellion,  164 
Shenandoah  valley,  441  ftn.  i 
Sheridan,  General  P.  H.,  458 ftn.  i, 

461,  464 
Sherman,  General  WT.  T.,  456,  458, 

460,  462,  463,  466  ftn.  2,  497 


Sherman,  John,  519,  535,  543,  590 
Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act,  538  ftn.  2 
Sherman  Silver  Purchase  Act, 

55T»  559 

Shiloh,  battle  of,  444,  445 
Shipping,  American,  214, 214  ftn.  i, 

603  ftn.  2 

Shirley,  Governor,  96 
Silver,  coinage  of,  517.  518,  551, 

569 

Sitting  Bull,  517  ftn.  I 

Sixteen  to  one,  570 

Slave  trade,  17,  32,  in,  170,  304, 
307,  309,  359,  406  ftn.  i 

Slaves  and  slavery,  17,  32,  66,  170, 
298,  312-319,  325,  330,  334,  353, 
356>  363,  402,  405,  418  ftn.  i, 
419,  433,  469,  471,  474 

Slidell,  John,  343,  442,  454  ftn.  2 

Sloat,  Commodore,  344 

Smith,  John,  29,  31,  35 

Smuggling,  71 

Socialism,  324  ftn.  i,  616,  617,  618, 
6i8ftn.  i 

Soule,  Pierre,  373 

South,  colonial,  75,  76 ;  aristocracy 
in,  261  ;  condition  in  1860,  431- 
435;  solid,  523;  new,  547,  548, 
573,  620 

South  Carolina,  281,  282,  413, 
486  ftn.  2 

South  River,  60 

Spain,  explorations  and  colonies, 
13-17,  21,  58,  59,  66;  relations 
to  West,  102,  163,  195;  in 
American  Revolution,  140,  150; 
Pinckney  Treaty,  199,  209; 
sells  Florida  to  the  United 
States,  237-240 ;  boundary 
treaty  of  1819,  331 ;  in  Texas, 
333  ftn.  2;  in  Cuba,  372,  574, 
576)  577 ;  war  with  United 
States,  574-583  ;  results,  588 

Speaker  of  the  House,  180,  546 

Specie  circular,  287 

Spoils  system,  292 

Spotswood,  Alexander,  94 

Squatter  sovereignty,  354,  359, 
380,  401 

Stalwarts,  522,  522  ftn.  i 

Stamp  Act,  113-116 

Standpatters,  614 


Index 


66 1 


Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  440  ftn.  2,  469, 

490,  502 

Star  of  the  West,  the,  423 
Star  routes,  493 
Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  410,  414, 

415,  429,  435,  464,  481 
Steuben,  Baron,  141  ftn.  i 
Stevens,  John  L.,  565 
Stevens,  Thaddeus,  484  ftn.  2,  502 
Stowe,  Harriet  B.,  384 
Strikes,  539  ftn.  2,  562,  563,  596 
Stuyvesant,  Peter,  59,  60 
Subtreasury  Act,  288 
Sugar    and    Molasses    Act,     108, 

112 

Sumner,    Charles,    319,  392,   393? 

442  ftn.  i,  498 
Superior,  Lake,  87 
Supreme    Court,     179,    233,    234, 

561,  564,  587 
Susquehannocks,  34 
Sweden,  60 ftn.  i,  81 

Taft,   William   H.,    584,   585,  607, 

614,  623 

Talleyrand,  200,  209 
Tallmadge  amendment,  310,  311 
Taney,  Roger  B.,  285,  286,  397 
Tanner,  Corporal,  546  ftn.  2 
Tariff,     190,    190  ftn.  i;    of    1816, 
230,  269 ;   theory  of,    267,    268, 
269;  of  1824,  270;  opposed  by 
the   South,   270,   271,   273,  274; 
of  1828,  271-273;  of  1832,  281  ; 
of  1833,  282  ;  of  1846,  396 ;  after 
Civil   War,    520 ;    under   Cleve 
land,   537;  McKinley  Bill,  550; 
Wilson-Gorman  Bill,  560 ;  with 
Philippines,  587  ftn.  I  ;  Dingley 
Bill,    590;    Payne- Aldrich    Bill, 
614  ftn.  i 
Tarry  town,  141 
Taylor,    Zachary,    343,    344,    345, 

354,  355'  356>  3^2,  433  ftn- T 
Tecumseh,  218 
Teller,  Senator,  570  ftn.  2,  577 
Tennessee,     146,    309,    446 ftn.  i, 

478,  483 

Tenure  of  Office  Act,  490,  534 
Texas,    256,    256 ftn.  i,    329,    333, 

334,  335,  338,  340,  34i,  348 
Thayer,  Eli,  388 


Thomas,  General  G.  H.,  456,  463 
Thomas  amendment,  312 
Thompson,  Secretary,  416,  420 
Ticonderoga,  101,  127 
Tilden,  Samuel,  495,  496 
Tippecanoe,  218,  297 
Toleration  Act,  Maryland,  56 
Toombs,  Robert,  358, 394,  434  ftn.  i 
Topeka,  389 
Toqueville,     Alexis     de,      172, 

333  ftn.  2,  430 
Toral,  General,  580 
Tories    (Loyalists),   129,   135-138, 

147,  152,  153,  156 
Toscanelli,  5,  6 

Townshend  Acts,  117,  118,  119 
Trent  affair,  442 
Trenton,  battle  of,  137 
Trist,  Nicholas,  346 
Trusts,    538,    538  ftn.  2,   541,    573, 

596,  610,  6ioftn.  i 
Tryon,  Governor,  131 
Turks,  4 
Turner,  Nat,  318 
Tweed  ring,  492,  495 
Tyler,  John,  336,  337,  341 

"  Uncle   Tom's  Cabin,"   384,   384 

ftn.  2 
Underground    railroad,    365,   366, 

375 

Union  Pacific  Railroad,   512,   513 

United  States,  conditions  in  1789, 
184,  186;  in  1815,  236,  237  ;  in 
1825,  260,  261  ;  in  1830,  367- 
370,  395;  in  1861,  431,  432; 
after  the  war,  520,  521  ;  in  1890, 
547  ;  in  1900,  591,  592 

Upshur,  Secretary,  337,  339 

Utah,  359,  549  ftn.  i 

Utrecht,  Treaty  of,  71, 93,  93  ftn.  i 

Vagrancy  laws,  480 

Vallandigham,  C.  L.,  449,449  ftn.  I 

Valley  Forge,  138 

Valparaiso,  555 

Van  Buren,    279,    288,    295,    297, 

336,  355 

Vanderbilt,  Cornelius,  371 
Vardaman,  619 
Venezuela,  566,  567,  573 
Vera  Cruz,  345 


662 


Index 


Vergennes,  139,  150 
Vermont,  164,  310 
Verrazano,  20,  82 
Vespucius,  11,12 
Vicksburg,  446, 449,  451,  452  ftn.  i 
Victoria,  Queen,  436 
Vincennes,  148,  149 
Virginia,  21,  28,  31,  32,   33,   114, 
118,  161,  168,  202,  203,304,  426 
Virginius  affair,  500 
Von  Hoist,  H.  E.,  278 

Wabash  case,  541 

Wade-Davis  bill,  478  ftn.  i 

Wakarusa  River,  391 

Waldseemiiller,  12,  13 

Walker,  R.  J.,  396,  398 

Walpole,  Robert,  71,  93,   109,  no 

War,  cost  of,  588 

War  hawks,  218 

Warren,  Joseph,  121 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  596 

Washington,  city  of,  221,  428,  440 

Washington,  George,  in  colonial 
wars,  97,99;  in  Revolution,  127, 
129,  132,  135  ff.,  155;  on  Con 
stitution,  1 66,  167;  President, 
187,  192,  193,  195;  farewell  ad 
dress,  199,  243 ;  command  of 
French  war,  201  ;  opinion  on 
slavery,  308  ftn.  2 

Washington,  Treaty  of,  498,  502 

Watauga  River,  145-147 

Weaver,  J.  B.,  556,  557 

Webster,  Daniel,  on  Northwest 
Ordinance,  166;  on  Alexander 
Hamilton,  189;  on  growth  of 
West,  249;  career,  252,  253; 
reply  to  Hayne,  280 ;  on  aboli 
tion,  319;  on  slavery,  337,  375  ; 
Ashburton  Treaty,  337,  350  ;  on 
Compromise  of  1850,  360,  361  ; 
Secretary  of  State,  370,  372 


Welles,  Secretary,  442 
West,  growth  and  influence,  245, 
246,  249,  261,  262,  287,  328-330, 

349»  351'  43 !  ftn- 
West  Point,  141 
West  Virginia,  436 
Weyler,  General,  575 
Wheeler,  General  Joseph,  590 
Whigs,  294-297,  337,  385 
Whisky  Rebellion,  199  ftn.  i 
White,  Hugh  L.,  279 
Whitman,  Marcus,  332,  350 
Whitman,  Walt,  468  ftn.^2 
Whittier,  J.  G.,  388,  395 
Wigfall,  Senator,  419 
Wilderness  campaign,  459 
Wilderness  Road,  148 
Wilkes,  Captain,  442 
Wilkinson,  James,  212 
William  III,  52,  62,  67  ftn.  i,  71,91 
Williams,  Roger,  44,  56 
Wilmot  Proviso,  352 
Wilson-Gorman  Bill,  560 
Winchester,  battle  of,  461 
Winthrop,  John,  40 
Wirt,  William,  293 
Wisconsin,  6n,  613 
Wise,  Henry  A.,  321,393, 43 2  ftn.  i 
Witchcraft,  49 

Wolfe,  General  James,  101,  102 
Wood,  General  Leonard,  586 
World's  Fair  at  Chicago,  563  ftn.  i 
WTrits  of  Assistance,  112,  117 
Wyoming  valley,  164 

X  Y  Z  Affair,  200,  201  ftn.  i 

Yancey,  William,  409,  415 
York,  Duke  of,  53  ftn.  2,  58 
Yorktown,  142,  143,  144 
Yulee,  Senator,  421 

Zenger,  Peter,  78 


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